(I'm Not) Crazy
by Rawiyah
Summary: AU. After escaping imprisonment on Asgard, Loki returns to earth, only to find himself in a different sort of prison... A psychiatric ward. And you know what...? He kind of likes it there. Thorki-ish with Thanos and The Other hot on Loki's trail. COMPLETE.
1. The Place

Summary: AU. After escaping imprisonment on Asgard, Loki returns to earth, only to find himself in a different sort of prison... A psychiatric ward.

* * *

**Chapter One: The Place**

Loki thought he was dangerously clever. He thought he had it all in the bag, what, with him escaping Asgard right from underneath Odin's nose, and with Thor bound to take the throne of Asgard one of these days... He knew that Thor wouldn't punish him nearly as heavily as Odin if he'd be found again. Not that he was planning on being found, no. In fact, Loki was certain that no one would think to look for him there.

He'd have to lay low for a while, however. After the fiasco in New York, Loki knew if he started wreaking havoc there too soon, he'd be found out so much faster than he'd prefer to... and that would not do at all. So, it was decided. Loki would blend in for a little while... But not too long, he just needed the time to piece together a plan for total domination of earth.

He chuckled to himself, not really noticing the other people on the bus. The fat, dark skinned woman he sat next to didn't even pay him any attention either. She just stared at the ground, waiting for the bus to reach her destination. Which, reminded Loki, he had no current destination. The money he had was what he had found laying around after some punk in the street tried to get away with robbing some young businessman. Loki, being the so devilishly clever person he is, was able to swiftly sneak by and take that wallet that was dropped. He supposed he'd just go as far as the little money he had would take him.

...

He did not expect that his money would take him here, of all places. He glanced around the area, half expecting to see rats and other diseased creatures scattering about the place. Well, it was late. Perhaps this place only looked so abandoned at night? Loki sighed. He really had no where else to go, so... it was into the building he went.

He was surprised by how much cleaner it looked inside than it did outside. But he still was not impressed with the appearance of the place... It looked, well, sad. Hopeless. Being there just made him want to crawl into a corner and weep. But Loki would never do that. Of course, not. There were rows of strange looking benches, not like the kind you'd see out in the parks of New York, these were wooden and they were in rows all leading up to a very grand stage with a large statue of a man with his hands attached to a cross. He stared at it for a moment, not too sure what it was or who the statue was supposed to be.

It was then that he noticed a man standing on the "stage". He was lighting some candles and the light bounced onto the shimmering colors of the stained glass windows above him. The man was very silent as he did this, had Loki not seen him first, he'd have no idea that he was not alone. Loki cleared his throat.

"Where am I?" He asked. The man turned around and Loki could see he was elderly and dressed in very strange clothes. But Loki didn't have time to wonder about the man's clothes. He already wasted so much time just wondering about this place and all of it's strangeness. Loki could hardly see the man as he was so far away, so he took the man's initial silence as a welcome to step a little closer.

The old man smiled.

"Glory to God!" The old man exclaimed. "Someone has finally come in!"

"What are you talking about?" Loki was starting to feel a little uncomfortable. Was this man referring to a friend of his, mentioning God and whatnot? Or maybe this was a shrine for some Midgardian deity? He'll find out soon enough.

"You're the first person to come in from the streets in thirty years!" The old man was approaching him rapidly now, his hands outstretched and a smile plastered onto his face that made his beady, black eyes sink inward and his wrinkles deflated the fullness of his face, if there ever was any to begin with! Loki backed away a little, but not fast enough that the old man didn't catch his hand and hold it dearly for a while.

"What is this place?!" Loki asked.

"You're in a church, lad!" The old man smiled even more and his wrinkles deepened. Loki frowned. He didn't know what a church was, but it definitely gave him the heebie-geebies.

"No, what area of Midgard is this?!" He asked a little louder, not really to the man, he was more-so just wondering aloud to himself. This place wasn't anything like New York. Everywhere he went, it was dark, and it looked abandoned. This wasn't at all what it looked like when he first got on the bus and drove through many beautiful buildings and saw a few people bustling by, probably on their way to their meaningless jobs and carrying on with their pathetic lives.

"Midgard?" The elderly man asked. But Loki was too lost in his thoughts. He was beginning to feel a little panicked, he didn't know where he was on Midgard and he wasn't sure if he could probably concoct a plan here... No, this place had far too less people to cause any trouble... He needed an audience! He needed people! Where was this place? How could he find out?!

"Where am I?!" Loki demanded.

"Y... you're in Detroit?" The elderly man looked very carefully at Loki, who now seemed to be far off someplace else. Lost in his worries. "Young man, are you alright?"

_Detroit? _Where was Detroit? Loki felt even more lost now, not realizing quite how small... yet how very vast Midgard was! So many different cultures, different places! Asgard was all of one culture, yet Midgard was so many! Loki fell to his knees, not really noticing anyone else around him anymore. His thoughts were moving too fast.

Loki didn't expect the man to reach out and touch his shoulder, so, he panicked a little more.

"WHAT AREA OF MIDGARD IS THIS?!"

"Young man, I do not think you're well..." The older man spoke, but Loki wasn't hearing anything he was saying.

"No! This is all wrong..." Loki trailed off. Loki stood now and began to head towards the door, but the elderly man reached out and grabbed Loki by the shoulder. Loki turned around, huffy and agitated. "Unhand me."

"No, young man, I think, you should stay here a little while."

"Why?"

"You're not well. I think it would be best if-"

"FOOL!" Loki spouted. "Do you have any idea of who I am?!"

"Yes." The man said with a smile. "You're a child of God, as well all a-"

"I am Loki." Loki beamed. "Of Asgard and I have come to free your realm of it's freedom and lawlessness!" The man only stood in silence with his mouth agape. He studied Loki for a moment, not sure if he should speak. But thankfully, Loki spoke up so he wouldn't have to. "I have come to rule your realm and if you _fools_ do not cooperate I will destroy Midgard from inside out until every man, woman and child perishes from this-" It surprised Loki that this elderly man had the gall to cut him off.

"Young man, I will not tolerate that sort of talk. Not here." The man then proceeded to attempt to lead Loki to one of the strange, wooden benches to sit. Loki resisted at first until he realized there'd be no reason to resist. All the man wanted to do was sit him down, and Loki was feeling a little exhausted after his trip from Asgard. Loki followed the man and sat down on the hard, wooden seat. The older man smiled nervously and spoke again. "I'll be back. I'm going to make a quick phone call and then we can continue this discussion." Loki watched as the elderly man walked away, down the middle of the path of wooden benches and into a corridor on the opposite end of the building, close to where he had first entered.

Loki let out a long breath that he didn't know he was holding in and he leaned back to stare up at the high ceiling. His thoughts were still racing and he couldn't figure out what his brain was trying to decide for him. There wasn't any point in trying to decide now what was going to happen, he knew either way, he'd have to figure out a way to get out of 'Detroit' and to someplace with a little more to work with. He didn't even notice when he began to feel a little tired.

...

"He might be dangerous"

The words sounded really far off in the distance as Loki slowly began to stir. His eyes wouldn't even focus, he didn't realize he'd been in such a deep sleep.

"We can handle anything this whack-job has to dish out."

There was a voice that Loki didn't recognize. And who were they referring to when they said 'whack job'? He closed his eyes again when they still didn't focus. Whatever was going on around him was of no concern to him. These people were beneath him anyway...

His eyes snapped open, however when he felt large, strong hands seize his upper arm.

"Unhand me!" He exclaimed, his eyes finally focusing. He could see they were men. Big men. And one he recognized the uniform of. It was a police officer, he remembered from the last time he was in Midgard, they drove in black and white vehicles that made a loud, wailing noise and flashed blue and red lights to warn those of their arrival. Loki snarled. Then he looked at the big man who was squeezing his arm and pulling him up. This man was accompanied by another man wearing similar clothes. Both wore an outfit consisting of pants and a short sleeved shirt that was a light shade of blue. Loki began to kick once the other, slightly smaller man grabbed his other arm.

"Just let him kick." The big man said. Loki noticed this man had dark skin and very tired, brown eyes. He had no hair and the other man, slightly smaller, was incredibly pale, with wild, red curls. Loki was growing tired of their games and he swung his leg to kick the larger man. The larger man doubled over and the other let go of Loki's arm to run away. Loki took that as a victory.

"You worthless, pathetic weaklings!" Loki bellowed. "Can you not see?! I am your superior! You will **all** kneel before me!"

"This one is really strong!" The dark skinned man said, "It'll take a lot more than a syringe of Haldol to get this one calm, get the strongest thing we have." Loki didn't even pay attention to them. He stood, feeling very, very powerful and he began to walk forward, towards the dark skinned man in blue who was still on the floor, doubled over in pain.

The police officer made a move as though he were going to run and tackle Loki to the ground, but Loki turned to him and held out his hand to use an energy blast, but quickly realized how weak he was from traveling between realms. He, instead put out both hands to push the offending officer away, sending him flying many feet backwards until he slammed into the concrete wall adjacent to the 'stage' of the sanctuary, where they were standing.

"Sir!" The red headed man called, "Sir, we're going to ask that you remain calm and follow us. That way, no one has to get hurt."

Loki snorted and then turned on his heels to face the red headed man. He opened his mouth to begin to speak, but was cut off before he could utter a word as another, big and heavy man tackled him from behind. They both fell to the ground with Loki kicking and squirming once more. Then something sharp pressed into his backside. He kicked even harder, but it felt as though the more he moved, the slower his body became. He felt sluggish and his body felt swollen and heavy. He did not lose consciousness, however, and it appeared that the man who tackled him noticed this.

"Give me a stronger one!" He said as he pinned Loki down. Loki still struggled against him as another sharp pain made Loki wince. He felt as though everything was moving in slow motion, his legs felt like they had weights attached to them and he felt clumsy with every movement he made. Time felt like it was moving slower and slower... until it finally just came to a complete stop. And Loki lost consciousness at last.

...

Loki woke up, not remembering when he had fallen asleep. There was hardly any light and it was hard for his eyes to adjust. He looked around a little, trying to figure out where he it was that he had been placed after remembering the incident with the old man at the strange sanctuary. His head was aching and he still felt a little sluggish. Something felt strange and he slowly crept his hands, more specifically his fingers, up to the fabric of clothing that covered his chest. He touched it, studied it with his hands and summed up that he had been stripped of his Asgardian garb and put into something... Midgardian.

A door opened that he didn't see before and light flooded into the room. He took this time to notice what was around him. Not much, just the bed that he was lying on, which only had a pillow, sheet and thin, white blanket, a window, which showed nothing but a starless, dark sky, and an indent in the wall with some empty shelves. To his right there was also another door, probably a toilet area, he assumed.

"You're awake." A person stepped into the room, wearing white. "If you're up to it, I was hoping I could speak with you." It was a woman. She had medium length, dark brown hair, glasses, and red lipstick. "I know it's late, but this is very important. I'm sure you're wondering where you are."

Loki wanted to bitch at her, tell her that she was a pathetic bitch and that she'd bow before him and he'd rule over her and all the other worthless scum of Midgard. But he didn't have any fight in him. He was feeling too weak and his mind was too clouded. He assumed he'd been poisoned and he'd just have to go with the flow of things before trying to take over the world again, at least until this Midgardian poison had worn off.

Loki stood up from the bed and he first thought he might fall over from exhaustion, but he still remained standing and he took that as a good sign. He slowly approached the woman standing in the doorway, feeling temporary defeat. The woman began to lead him down a quiet, slightly dark hallway with closed doors on each side of the walls. The place was incredibly quiet, leading Loki to believe it must be very, very early in the morning before the sun rose, or very very late in the day, as it was still very dark outside. Finally, the woman came to a slightly open door at the end of the hallway and she opened the door wider for Loki to come inside.

"Come in." She whispered. Loki was too tired to resist. Oh, he'd have his way with her later, but not now. Now, all he wanted to do was rest and forget this terribly embarrassing moment in his life where he was defeated by weak Midgardians. He walked into the room seeing a small wooden desk with a device that had a screen and keyboard. He recognized these from the helicarrier. It was a computer. There was also a bulletin board with some papers pinned. The woman walked to the chair behind the desk and began to sit down, then motioned with her hand for Loki to sit as well. He complied.

"I just want to ask you some questions." She spoke in such an airy, calm voice. It was almost soothing for Loki's ears. He rather enjoyed the way she spoke as it reminded him somewhat of his moth- of Frigga. "What's your name?"

"Loki of Asgard" He responded. He was shocked at how hoarse his voice had become. The woman took out a sheet of paper and a pencil from her drawer and began to scribble some words down on the paper.

"Where are you from, Loki?" There it was again, her rather calm, soothing voice.

"I came from Asgard." The woman went right back to scribbling.

"Do you know where you are, Loki?"

"...Detroit?"

"Do you know who I am?"

"No."

The woman continued to scribble down words on her sheet of paper, long after the awkward silence between them had begun. She leaned back and tipped her glasses forward so they rested on the tip of her nose and she studied her writing.

"Loki, you're in a hospital." She said, then she pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose and looked him in the eyes. "You're in a psychiatric ward."

* * *

Author's Notes:

This plot bunny came to me as I was watching Only Lovers Left Alive. I have personal experience with being in the psych ward (I've been there multiple times) and I wanted to write about a character who was going through the same sort of thing.

So, a little disclaimer, I guess. Everyone's experience in a psych ward is going to be different based on the hospital they go to, the ward they go to (as some hospitals have different wards depending on the conditions of the patients), whether the hospital is private or state, how long the person is there, and their mindset at the time. So if this story doesn't reflect your experience in a psych ward, then I'm sorry, but since we all experience things differently you can't tell me this isn't accurate according to your standards when it's accurate according to my own experience.

/rantover

Anyway. I don't know much about comic Loki except for what I've read on Wikipedia and the little that I've seen of the comics on Tumblr, so if this isn't accurate for Loki, then... well... sorry? I try to keep him in character, but it's hard when all I've seen of him is from the movies. Sorry.

Anyway, same as always, R &amp; R please. I appreciate constructive criticism as long as it's respectful and not snarky. And definitely no flames. This story could possibly turn into Thorki, so I'm warning you now, if you flame, I might get my feelings hurt, but I'll probably just delete your comment and keep writing.

Okay, it's official, this note is over.


	2. The Ward

Summary: AU. After escaping imprisonment on Asgard, Loki returns to earth, only to find himself in a different sort of prison... A psychiatric ward.

* * *

**Chapter Two: The Ward**

Word spread across Asgard quickly that Loki had escaped. The only ones who were more worried than upset was Thor and Frigga, but both equally wanted Loki to come back to face his punishment like an adult instead of running away like an irresponsible little child. Odin was keen on sending out the fastest troops he had to find Loki and return him to Asgard to face justice, but Thor convinced him otherwise. It was simple, really, he'd just go to Heimdall and request to know of Loki's whereabouts.

And he did, but Heimdall told him,

"The last I could see of Loki was that he was on Midgard before he cloaked himself once more."

Thor assumed that there was where Loki must be! Loki had no reason to leave Midgard, but he was rather surprised that Loki would attempt to rule over the people of Earth again. Though, it was in Loki's nature to be a sore loser, as they'd say on Midgard. With the bifrost repaired, Thor was able to use it to travel back to Midgard to search for his brother.

...

Upon arrival in Midgard, Thor tried to find signs of Loki's whereabouts. Perhaps photos of him in newspapers, or tales of horrible destruction somewhere on Earth, but there was nothing. Not any information on his brother at all and that made Thor worry even more. If he were to return to Asgard empty handed, who knows what sort of punishment the Allfather would reign down on him, and who knows what sort of Hel he'd raise on Earth! Thor knew the Allfather would scrounge every part of this realm until it was nothing just to find Loki and make him suffer for his crimes.

Thor let out a long sigh. This would be so much harder than he had first anticipated. It seemed that Loki hadn't caused any trouble since he arrived on Earth. Which, sounded so impossible! Loki! _**Not**_ causing trouble?! Thor growled softly in his throat. What sort of sick, twisted scheme was Loki plotting this time? It had to be something vey serious, something very flashy and grand for him to come to Midgard and not cause trouble on the first day of arriving.

Thor didn't want to have to resort to using S.H.I.E.L.D.'s help to find his brother. He didn't want to cause any panic among the Midgardians, he just wanted to find his brother and bring him home... again. But this quest was, thus far, turning out to be fruitless and Loki was no closer to being found.

Thor searched across the earth, China, France, Rwanda, New Zealand, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Turkey, anywhere he felt his brother might decide to land and cause destruction. But again, there was no sign of Loki anywhere. Thor wasn't going to give up... but he was very close to deciding on involving S.H.I.E.L.D. to help him in his hunt for his mischievous younger brother.

Thor didn't notice he was being watched. People remembered Thor from New York and many snapped photos of the God while he was in flight, posting them on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook. Most were too afraid to approach Thor, but they were all very interested in why Thor had returned to earth.

Among those that were interested was Jane Foster. Who, was currently in Norway after being relocated for her safety. S.H.I.E.L.D. made sure to keep her protected, but... Thor had returned. She needed to see him, at least, see more of him than she was seeing in the news article she was reading on the Huffington Post showing images of Thor, taken from cellphones, questioning if the photos were legit and wondering why Thor had returned to Earth.

"Darcy!" Jane called through the open door of her apartment bedroom. There wasn't much of a reply except a really, lazy, drawn out 'what' that sounded so soft Jane almost did not hear it. "Darcy! Guess what?!"

"WHAT?!"

"... I think he's back!"

...

Loki began to wile away the hours. No matter what he said, he couldn't convince anyone in the hospital that he truly was a God and that he really was Loki Odinson. It was as if these people lived under rocks. They obviously didn't hear about the time in New York. Or perhaps no one got a good photo of Loki. That really riled Loki up thinking about it... How dare these Midgardians! Loki was the star of the show in New York and they were too stupid to even capture an image of Loki at his best. Such a shame...

He sat on the windowsill of the only window in his room, allowing the light of day to flood the white walls and warm his skin ever so slightly. He'd recovered his strength, but his pride was so hurt, he didn't even want to return to Asgard or take over this realm that much anymore. He'd always remember the time he was overcome by pathetic mortals and he knew that the "staff" here at the hospital would never let him live it down. He'd always be remembered as the crazy, incompetent wannabe-God that failed to take over Earth _**twice over**_.

Loki let out an inhuman growl as he grabbed fistfuls of his hair and crouched deep into himself. He felt so weak, so pathetic that he'd allowed himself to be taken to such a dull, boring place. He'd always had a plan before, but now it was just a hourglass, slowly releasing each tiny grain of sand. A ticking time bomb. He'd just have to wait here until Odin sent his goons to come and get him and return him to his pitiful existence on Asgard... if Odin was merciful. Though, a swift death would please Loki even more.

There was a gentle knock at the door and Loki turned his head away as if not looking at whoever was in the doorway would make him disappear from their sight.

"Loki...?" Ah, it was the female nurse. Yes, the one with a short, black bob and tanned skin. "Loki, if you're hungry you can come out to have breakfast." And that was all she said before drawing her head out of the room and slowly closing the door. (Of course, she didn't close it all the way, just left it cracked.)

Loki groaned, he'd not lower himself to eat Midgardian food. Not that the food on Asgard was any better, it was all meat, mead and fruit. Nonetheless, Loki would much rather eat the long tables full of meat than take a bite of anything these weak humans could offer. He knew, sooner of later someone would come for him. He didn't want to uncloak himself just yet, not until someone found him and took him out of this miserable place. He couldn't bear it if Heimdall saw how small and vulnerable he was now. No... Thor, perhaps, would find him, and Thor wouldn't humiliate him for what has happened.

He tried to make himself even smaller by hugging himself deeper than before. There was no point in staying in this room and waiting for time to move faster, but there'd also be no point in leaving this room to go mingle among the dreaded, unstable swine of Midgard either. Loki saw no point in being alone, but no point in being social. He decided he'd stay in his room, for now. At least until there was a signal of lightening and thunder that would communicate to him that he was found.

For now, he'd just wait. However long that would take...

...

Thor looked through the local newspapers of Sweden. He wasn't really looking for any words in particular, just photos of disasters or images of Loki. Whether these were local disasters or international, he really didn't seem to care. As he was flipping through the pages, clearly uninterested in anything the magazine had to say he noticed one article that was written in English with a familiar picture lined neatly to the side of the text.

_Interested in astrophysics and well seasoned sea bass?_

_Come join me, Jane Fairchild, in Oslo, Norway! _

There was more in the article but Thor didn't need to continue reading. He recognized Jane's photo in an instant and he knew her whereabouts now. Though this wasn't the time for social calls, he knew Jane could help him find his brother. This article was obviously meant for him and he was going to answer the call.

Thor dropped the newspaper where he stood and began to swing Mjolnir, forming clouds and lightening as he shot into the sky and prepared for his flight to Jane. It only took all of a few seconds for him to swing into the air and fly in the direction he knew of Norway to be, once he'd arrived he'd have to ask where Oslo was, though. What a drag!

...

Jane expected him to be there sooner. She left her exact address in the article, but she figured that Thor would have found where she was by now. He was supposed to be fast! Jane was growing a little impatient, but she'd give it another few minutes before heading inside. It was summer, but still windy and chilly outside. If she was going to wait for a long time for Thor and his big head to show up, she'd rather do it from the warmth of her apartment.

It happened so suddenly, yet, because it was expected, it didn't come as a shock to Jane... The sound of thunder roaring in the distance as the clouds turned an ugly grey color. Jane smiled.

"Thor!" She exclaimed to the sky, long before Thor even showed up on the ground.

Thor did, in fact, land pretty hard on his feet, creating a small crater-like bowl beneath his feet. Thor looked worn out and tired when Jane finally saw his face. He smiled at the sight of her, yet, something was different. It was as if he were only feigning happiness to see her. Still, she ran to him and threw her arms around his neck.

"Thor!"

"Jane Foster." He returned the hug. "Where is Darcy...? And Eric Selvig?" He asked, looking around.

"Ah, we lost touch with Eric a while ago..." Jane looked to the ground for a minute, remembering their friend. "But Darcy is back at the apartment."

"I would very much like to see her." He smiled. "I'm in need of assistance."

So Jane led Thor to the doors of the apartment building, up the stairs and to the small apartment that S.H.I.E.L.D. provided for Jane and Darcy. Thor was respectful to place Mjolnir in the closet before entering the apartment completely.

"Hey, big guy!" Darcy called as she approached Thor. "Still blond, I see."

Thor gave a nod. (But wondered to himself why he wouldn't be blond anymore.) Darcy offered him a hug and he accepted, then went back to the task at hand. "I am in need of assistance."

"What's wrong?" Jane asked. "Is something the matter? Is that why you came back to Earth?"

"Yes. But I need you not to inform S.H.I.E.L.D. of this."

"Cross our hearts!" Darcy spoke.

Thor didn't quite understand what she meant, but from her tone of voice, he assumed it meant she wouldn't tell. He told Jane and Darcy about all that occurred in New York, all that Loki has done. He also told them about when he brought Loki to Asgard to face Asgardian justice and Loki's escape...

"And I know not where he has come to on Earth." Thor continued, "There have not been any signs of his presence on Midgard anywhere."

"Maybe he's not here?" Darcy suggested.

Thor let out something that sounded like a nervous chuckle. "No, Heimdall had said he'd last seen Loki here, on Midgard. Loki would have no reason to leave now that he's already here."

"Have you checked any online databases? Surely he'd have to have been spotted by S.H.I.E.L.D. by now..." Jane suggested, but Thor shook his head. He didn't know what a database was. But sure enough, Darcy was very skilled in the art of computer hacking and could access files from anywhere in the world. Thor was set to rely on that power of hers.

Darcy typed away at the keyboard, searching through many files with names all related to Loki, looking for something recent. Anything really, as long as it was recent. Their results were starting to look pretty bleak, as though all the information on Loki was just S.H.I.E.L.D.'s information and it seemed like no one else had even caught a picture of Loki. Until...

"Hey, guys!" Darcy said with her mouth full of a bite of her sandwich. Thor and Jane got up from their seats on the couch where they were waiting for any news from Darcy on her search. "Check this out...

Name: Loki Odinson (Claimed)

Date admitted: January 12th, 2015

Date of Birth: N/A

Diagnoses: TBD

Symptoms: Grandiose delusions, Violent, homicidal thoughts, Inferiority complex

Place of admission: Stonecross Center, Detroit, MI. "

"Admission?" Thor asked. "What has he admitted to?"

"He's in a hospital." Jane whispered. "... a _mental_ hospital."

"We must rescue him!" Thor bellowed and he began to reach out for Mjnolir, but was stopped by Jane's hands grabbing his arm.

"Rescue him?! He tried to kill you! Tried to take over the world!" Jane spat in sort of a 'duh' way. "Maybe he's finally getting the help he needs."

"My brother does not belong in an asylum!"

"But maybe it's the only place that can contain him right now! The only place that can help him!"

"My brother is not unstable!"

Darcy only stared at the both of them, not wanting to get involved in the argument. Preferably, she'd prefer to always stay on Thor's _good side_.

"If you do not wish to help then I will find assistance elsewhere!" Thor roared. Thunder and lightening began to cackle outside and shake the building, but Jane didn't seem to notice it, as she was too far gone in her own arguments.

"Fine! I'd like to see you try to find someone else to help you!"

Thor roared and held out his hand for Mjnolir, which broke through the wall of the closet and slammed into Thor's hand and in the blink of an eye, Thor was gone.

* * *

Author's Notes:

I have so much more that I want to write, but I didn't want this chapter to get too long so I'm cutting it there.

I'm actually pretty excited for how this story is turning out, but I worry it may be losing focus in some spots. Let me know what you think.

I know it's starting off very, very slow. I'm not planning to make this an incredibly long fanfic or anything, but I do think it'll take at least another chapter to get the whole story situated so I can figure out how I want to introduce Loki, Thor and all the other Avengers and whether or not I want them to "rescue" Loki from the psych ward.

I also want to add some dialogue or at least some interaction between Loki and other patients, as that's always the most interesting part of being in the psych ward, the other patients you meet, you know?

Anyway, please R &amp; R. I could really use the feedback, and who knows? Your ideas could help shape the path of this fic!

\- Rawiyah


	3. The Friends

Summary: AU. After escaping imprisonment on Asgard, Loki returns to earth, only to find himself in a different sort of prison... A psychiatric ward.

* * *

**Chapter Three: The Friends**

Loki stared at the ceiling. He had been in his room all morning. Thankfully no one really came in to disturb him, just the occasional staff worker knocking on his door and telling him that that there was a different type of therapy going on and that he should join, but they never forced him to therapy and for that Loki was thankful.

He still didn't want to be there, but he felt a little calmer being there than he had in a while. It was sort of a relief to not have to feel like he needed to prove himself to someone. These people didn't seem to care whether or not he was powerful. They all were just concerned and wanted to help. Well, most of the them anyway. Loki was entirely convinced that a few of them just saw this a a paycheck and couldn't care less what actually happened to him.

There was a knock at the door again and it slowly opened. The same nurse, Becky, with the short, black bob and tanned skin, poked her head into the room and looked at Loki, who was now laying on his bed, staring at the ceiling.

"Loki...? It's time to see your care team now." She said in a soft voice. When she didn't get a response, she tried again. "Your doctor wants to see you."

"Well, I don't want to see him." He replied.

"_Her_." Becky corrected. "And I'm afraid you have to see her if you ever want to be discharged from here."

Loki let out a long breath from his nose and sat up in his bed. He glared at Becky for a little while, almost as if glaring at her would make the doctor reconsider. Of course, Becky only averted her gaze on him and looked at the floor. Though her head was down, she still held fast.

"Your doctor wants to see you. Now." She said, in a slightly stronger tone of voice. Loki growled a little, deep in his throat and threw his legs over the side of the bed.

"Fine."

Becky opened the door wider for Loki to come out and follow her down the hall of rooms.

Loki looked around, taking in every detail of the place that he didn't notice during the night. The floors were made of wood and there was a common area with a TV where, he assumed, patients were able to watch during breakfast or their down time. There was also a counter behind the common area with a little window. He wasn't sure what that meant. They kept walking, but Loki was trying to see if he could see any of the other prisoners.

"Don't worry, they're all in Occupational Therapy right now... The doctors usually wait until there's a break before seeing their patients, but Dr. Braun wanted to see you right away."

"How wonderful..." Loki mumbled under his breath.

Becky led Loki to a door that was almost at the end of the hallway. It was closed and on the door there was a sign saying, "In Session". Becky leaned forward and twisted the knob to open the door, then allowed Loki to come into the room.

There were a few people there, not just the female doctor. There was one man, light skin, with a thick, bushy brown beard. He looked old, but it was hard to tell with all the fuzz on his face. Then, there was another man who looked much younger. Probably in his early twenties, in human years... He had curly, blond hair and very light, cloudy blue eyes. He looked nervous. Then there was yet another man. He was fat, and balding. He had a thick, black mustache and sandy brown skin. Then, lastly, there was the female doctor... Dr. Braun? She was, well, gorgeous. Long, wavy red hair with a complexion akin to milk topped with cinnamon. Her freckles made her look so young, so natural. Loki was impressed, as the healers he was used to on Asgard were usually old spinzters. Not at all like the person he was looking at right now.

"Loki?" Dr. Braun said. "Hello." She stood from where she was sitting at the long table with all the other people and reached out her hand to shake Loki's. Loki didn't shake her hand. He didn't even understand why she held her hand out. Dr. Braun wasn't offended and she went on to introduce herself and the other doctors. "I am Dr. Braun, I'll be your psychiatrist during your stay here." She turned to the older, hairy man sitting to her right, "This is Dr. Ackermann, he is the resident psychologist." Then she turned to the nervous, young man on her left. "This is Mr. Cross, he is a social worker." Lastly, she turned to the brown skinned man, "And this is Dr. Bakshi, another resident psychologist." Loki took his seat after all the names had been introduced. Of course, they all reached out to shake Loki's hand, but Loki refused.

Once seated, Dr. Braun began to speak once again.

"We've all been discussing your case, Loki." She looked down at a pile of papers in files that were placed in front of her on the table directly across from where Loki sat. "Ms. Becky told us earlier that you spoke to her a little bit last night when you first came in."

"I was obviously still under the effects of the poison."

"What poison, Loki?" Mr. Cross asked. His nervousness was showing even more now as he leaned forward shakily. Loki chuckled softly,

"Come now, _doctor_." He smiled, "Surely you remember the poison you've had your people inject into me that made me melt into submission before taking me to this wretched place."

Loki noticed Dr. Ackerman leaning towards Dr. Braun, then he noticed that Dr. Ackerman held up his hand to cover her ear as he whispered...

_He's talking about the sedative._

Loki snarled. Still amazed that these people had the gall to_ whisper _in front of Loki as though he weren't even there!

"Loki, we were told that you told Ms. Becky that you attempted suicide in the past?"

"I knew I'd survive the fall from the Bifrost."

"But you were hoping you wouldn't?"

Loki didn't like how they were reading his mind, either that, or he obviously told Becky way too much information while his head was still swamped with medication that he would never be familiar with. Loki chose to remain silent.

"And tell us about your brother."

"He's a stupid oaf, who everyone believes is perfect as he gloats about killing boars and eating an insane amount of food."

"You don't seem to like him."

"I don't like him." Loki chewed on his bottom lip for a minute. Feeling a little bad, he knew he was lying, but, he knew he was also telling the half truth. He didn't like his brother, but he certainly did love him. After all, they did grow up together.

"Why don't you like him? Has he mistreated you?"

"Thor has never mistreated me." Loki admitted. "But I was always his shadow. I could never measure up to his greatness, no matter what I did."

"Is that why you attempted suicide?" Dr. Ackerman asked. "I mean, were you feeling hopeless, in that, you could never seem to outshine your brother?"

"No!" Loki felt his face begin to flush as the mere thought of Thor, who had yet to rescume him, penetrated his mind. "I never wished to outshine Thor... I only wanted to be his equal."

The room went quiet for a little bit. Loki looked around starting to feel a little agitated. He wished the door was open so he could just stand up and leave now. He was only a few seconds away from standing before Dr. Braun began to speak again.

"Ms. Becky mentioned you said you were adopted?"

Loki huffed. "Yes." And that was all he said. He was furious with himself that he revealed so much about himself to a mere stranger. He leaned back in his chair and began to play with his hands, averting his gaze.

"Did you know your birth family?" Dr. Braun asked.

"No. I never wanted to know them."

"Why not, Loki?"

"They were a race of monsters. I am ashamed to be one of them."

"What makes them monsters, Loki?"

"What makes them not?" Loki smirked. "They're a race of horrible, ugly, cruel creatures... having abandoned me to my death when I was but a mere child. Then being cause of so many wars and death in the past." Loki clenched his teeth together tightly. "Them being the monsters that parents tell their children about at night..."

"Do you feel like a monster, Loki?"

Loki couldn't anwser that. He didn't know what to think. A part of him did feel like a monster, a horrible rejection that should have died on Jotunheim that day instead of being taken to live on Asgard as some puppet until he could be of further use. Loki lowered his head and mumbled,

"I don't want to talk anymore..."

Dr. Braun nodded to the other professionals in the room and they all decided with their eyes that Loki had enough for today.

"That's perfectly alright, Loki. We can stop for today, but I do want to encourage you to get involved with some of the therapies we have to offer here." She sat the papers upright and began to shuffle them on the table to get them back into place. "You're currently on a 72 hour hold. If I were you, I'd use this time to get better. We're only here to help, Loki."

Loki didn't listen to anything she said, instead he just stood from where he was sitting and shuffled over to the door which was being opened for him by Mr. Cross. He was glad to finally be done with the 'meeting'.

He walked back to his room silently, but not without looking around to see the common area being occupied by some other prisoners. He didn't get a chance to study them as he wanted, he was too tired to focus on them, but all he was able to gather was that a few of them were sitting on the floor and one on the couch, watching some pointless programs on the television that was placed into the wall.

When Loki made it back to his room he flopped onto the bed face-first and breathed deeply into the sheets. It was still light out, but Loki felt emotionally drained and tired from all the talking he did. He was silently begging Heimdall to open the Bifrost and send him home, but he knew Heimdall couldn't see him now... And he wasn't certain he wanted to be seen.

...

Thor arrived in Detroit late in the night. He didn't have a plan and he wasn't too sure where he'd go or how he'd get Loki out of the hospital. He could just barge in and demand Loki be handed over to his custody. But what if that was part of Loki's plan? Thor had to out-trick the trickster to be sure he wouldn't get caught up in a plan like last time.

He thought of going in as Donald Blake. That alias had worked to get him out of that interrogation that S.H.I.E.L.D. was doing on him back in New Mexico. Maybe it would work now? No, he'd need the help of someone else to pull that off. Thor was never a very good actor.

Maybe if he walked into the building, very calmly, he could simply say, "Behold, Midgardians, I am Thor, your God and I will be taking Loki back with me to Asgard to avoid any bodily harm that may befall you!" No... Then he'd be no better than Loki, an Asgardian demanding to be worshipped as a God. No, he'd need to find some way into the building that wouldn't require breaking in or causing the mortals to fear him.

Thor was feeling lost. He had no contact with anyone now, except maybe Heimdall. But he needed help and he had no idea where to look to find it. He stared at the bright lights of the tall building that read _Starcross Center_. He huffed, then turned around and sat down on the steps that lead into the building.

Then something caught his eye, something flying in the air, far off in the distance. It looked almost like a man...

"Stark!" Thor whispered. It just HAD to be Tony Stark! But here? Of all places? Why not?! Thor was certain that Tony probably traveled around the United States all the time, doing good things for other people or building new prototypes... Thor swung his hammer and flew with hast towards the robotic body that was flying through the air.

He caught up with Stark pretty quickly. "Stark!" He called.

Tony looked to his left and saw Thor approaching.

"JARVIS?" Tony asked,

"_Yes, Sir_?"

"Tell me that's justa figment of my imagination and not actually Men in Tights back there?!"

"_If, by Men in Tights, you're referring to Mr. Odinson, Sir, then no, that is not your imagination. I'm reading his heat signature now_."

Tony was in such shock to see Thor that he decided to land wherever, knowing that Thor would follow suit.

"Friend Stark!" Thor bellowed.

"Hey, Thor! Buddy!" Tony began. "The world isn't in danger, is it? Because I just finished up a huge project and I was kind of hoping that I could take a catnap for a little while..."

"No, the world is not in danger as of yet." Thor's face went really somber. "But it is at high risk for becoming in danger."

"What do you mean?"

"Loki has escaped from Asgard."

"WHAT?!"

"Loki has escaped and he's being held in a hospital, here, on Midgard."

"The fuck...?" Tony opened his mask so he could get a better look at Thor. And when he removed his mask it revealed his puzzled face. "What's he doing in a hospital? Please tell me he's dying."

Thor glared at him, but it only lasted for a moment. "Nay, he's being held in the psychiatric ward."

Tony's eyes widened at that for a moment, then he began to laugh a little.

"Haha, it's about time. I can't believe it... Bruce was right the whole time, that guy's brain really is a bag of cats!"

"Stark, he's my brother."

"I'm sorry. But hey, what do you want me to do about it? Maybe he's safe at the hospital?"

"No, he needs to be brought back to Asgard to face justice!" Thor gripped Mjnolir tighter. "Please, Stark, tell me you agree that he needs to be brought to justice!"

"Yeah..." Tony sighed. "I guess I did agree to that when I helped you stop him the last time."

"Do you have any ideas for getting into the hospital quietly? I would prefer not to disturb the people there or frighten them with threats."

"Don't worry, big fella." Tony smirked. "I've got a plan."

...

Thor and Tony walked into the hospital, both wearing average clothes, although Tony wore his sunglasses. He didn't want to be caught dead visiting someone in a psych ward. Still, it was futile as he was still recognized.

"Mr. Stark!" The man at the desk nearly jumped out of his chair as he reached forward to grab Tony's hand. "Mr. Stark! It is such an honor to meet you! I'm a really big fan, I have all of Iron Man's-"

"Thanks, pal." Tony replied. "Hey, look, can we visit someone at this hour?"

"What level are they on?" The man asked as he sat back down to look at his computer screen.

"Uh..." Tony wasn't an expert on hospitals, in fact, he did all he could to avoid them most of the time. They really just bummed him out and he didn't like to be bummed out. "He's... ahem... in the uh... psychiatric unit?"

The man behind the desk clicked on something on the computer and prepared his fingers on the keyboard. "What is his name?"

"Loki." Thor said. Thor looked completely unrecognizable in this attire. His long, blond hair was pulled back into a loose pony and he was wearing one of Tony's Black Sabbath shirts and a red hoodie with jeans. Thor was surprised at how comfortable the clothes were.

The man typed Loki's name right away into the computer sort of chuckling. "Is that his real name?"

"Well, that's the name he's going by." Tony said.

"And what is your relation with the patient?"

"He's his brother." Tony filled in. The man scrolled through the files to see if Loki was in the database. Low and behold, there really was someone by the name of Loki Odinson in the list of files.

"He's here alright." The man said. "But I'm afraid visiting hours are over at 9pm."

"Is there any way we can just... you know? Like, check him out now?" Tony asked.

"This isn't a hotel, Mr. Stark." The man laughed. "We can't just 'check people out' whenever someone comes for them. It looks like he's been 5150ed, so he won't be able to leave this hospital for another two days."

"5150ed?" Thor asked. "What does this mean?"

"It's a 72 hour hold. He's been arrested by police and we're holding him here for at least 72 hours. If he feels better in 72 hours, we'll arrange some outpatient treatment and he can go home. If not, he'll probably be 5250ed and be forced to stay another 14 days."

"Stark, I can't wait that long..." Thor turned to Tony with pleading, puppy eyes.

"Well, we can't do anything about that right now." Tony sighed, "When can we visit him tomorrow?"

"Visiting hours are from 8-9pm, but I'm sure if you call his doctor you can set up some time to visit him whenever? Is this his first time in the psych ward?"

"Yes. I believe so." Tony quickly answered for Thor, who opened his mouth to speak at first, then closed it once Tony spoke for him.

"Yeah, then I'm almost sure you can arrange something to see him more often. The doctors like to see when their patient has supporting family, it helps them to decide better on whether or not to place their patient under commitment." The man opened a drawer and began to dig through the contents. He pulled out a sticky notepad and a pen. "Here, I'll give you the number of his psychiatrist, you can call her around noon tomorrow and I'm sure you can set things up."

"Thank you very much, good sir!" Thor smiled. He wasn't sure if Loki would be happy to see him or not, but he was desperate to get Loki out of the hospital and back home to Asgard, where they both belonged.

* * *

Author's Note:

Thanks so much for the reviews! I am glad that someone out there is reading this story and actually liking it. LOL.

I got a review that asked for Loki to get a doctor to help with his issues, so here it is! I am definitely going to bring Bruce into this, I don't know if Bruce will be his doctor, however, because Bruce is physicist and not a psychologist, but I do want Bruce to be as involved as the other Avengers are in this.

I've got two Avengers down, just four more to go! This chapter ran a little long, but not as long as I'd really wanted it to be. I am going to have the next chapter have more interaction between Loki's therapist and himself and more of Loki actually getting "help". Right now, it's Loki's first full day at the hospital and usually the care team just wants to get to know you sort of so that they can spend the next week or so figuring out your medication and what sort of outpatient treatment you'll have.

Anyway, the next chapter is coming soon. Expect it tomorrow, definitely.

As always, R &amp; R. I really do appreciate it, if you find any mistakes, let me know! If you think of ways I can improve this story, let me know! If you liked this story as it is, let me know! I'm always interested in hearing your feedback.

Thanks again,

\- Rawiyah


	4. The Lonely

Summary: AU. After escaping imprisonment on Asgard, Loki returns to earth, only to find himself in a different sort of prison... A psychiatric ward.

**A/N: I have a semi-important note at the end of this chapter, so if you're a little confused on the story, I might answer your question in that note.**

* * *

**Chapter Four: The Lonely**

"Before we begin this session, Loki, I just thought I'd let you know, your brother has come here."

Loki's eyes widened. Dr. Ackerman didn't look surprised, but Loki sure as hell was. Why didn't Thor just bust through the wall and grab him and order Heimdall to open the Bifrost? That wasn't like Thor at all!

"He has asked to come visit you today. Do you want to see him?" Dr. Ackerman was sort of half listening, he seemed a little preoccupied with organizing the papers in his file, he wasn't even looking at Loki when he asked.

Loki thought about it. Of all the people from Asgard, he felt the safest with Thor in a vulnerable place like this. And he really didn't want to be on Thor's bad side now.

"I don't have a preference. I don't care if Thor comes."

"That's alright. I just thought I would ask before he came. You do have the right to refuse visitors, Loki." Dr. Ackerman didn't even seem surprised that Loki had called his brother Thor. Loki assumed that he probably thought this was all some part of a delusion and that his brother really had a different name.

Loki made a mental note of that information anyway.

"Shall we begin?" Dr. Ackerman finally set the papers aside and pulled out a clipboard with some lined loose leaf sheets of paper on them. Then he grabbed a pencil that was rolling around on the table and positioned himself.

"I guess..." Loki replied.

"Well, first things first..." Dr. Ackerman spoke. "Why do you think you're here?"

Loki smirked. "Isn't it obvious? You Midgardians don't believe in Gods anymore."

"No..." Dr. Ackerman cleared his throat, setting the pencil down and looking at Loki. "No, I believe you are who you say you are. I can't speak for the other doctors, though. But I do believe you, Loki."

"When why am I still here?"

"I could ask you the same question." Dr. Ackerman then set the clipboard and leaned over to scratch his head. "We both know you're strong enough to leave any time you want, why are you still here?"

Loki thought about it, he could have lied. He could have made up some excuse to save his pride, but he chose not to. And that did sort of scare him. "I understand you people are just 'here to help'?"

"Yes, Loki."

"I wish to accept your 'help'. For now." Loki turned away to look at the wall. "But when I grow bored of it, I'll be gone."

...

Loki ventured out of his room for a little while after his first one-on-one therapy session. Which, was basically more like a "getting to know more about you" sort of basis. The next event that would happen today was going to be a talk with a psychiatrist, who'd anwser medication questions and give information on medication safety. Loki currently wasn't taking any medication and wouldn't take it even if it was offered. (Which, it probably would be sooner or later.)

It wasn't as chaotic outside of his room as he'd first thought. The other 'patients' were all sitting around in the common area, either reading dull magazines or watching cartoons on the television. Loki kept his distance, but still studied the area carefully. He noticed that a few of the patients were wearing street clothes without shoes. Only a small number of them were wearing the hospital scrubs they were provided, but most wore their own clothing. Loki backed himself into a corner where he knew no one was watching him and used his seidr to provide himself with typical Midgardian street clothes. This made him feel more comfortable.

He noticed that a few ways away from the TV there was a little opening in the wall with a carpeted shelf for sitting, a small light overhead and some books. He wasn't quite sure what is was, but he was very interested in that area. He moved closer and read a little sign that was next to the opening, it read: _Quiet Area_. Well, Loki could definitely use some quietness. He walked into the opening and sat on the carpeted shelf. He glanced at the books, not really interested in reading right now. He leaned back against the wall and his eyes slowly closed and he started to think about all he's done while being on this realm.

His thoughts were disturbed when he felt the presense of someone looking at him. His eyes snapped open and he saw a fairly young woman staring at him. Her hair was messy, thick and brown. Her eyes were wide and almost wild. She was flushed, probably a side effect of her medication, Loki guessed. She wore a grey T-Shirt that said something about rafting on it, whatever the fuck that meant... Loki sighed and he opened his mouth to say something, but the woman spoke before he got the chance.

"I-I know you." She said. She sounded wild, but Loki wasn't afraid of her. "I have seen you before." She pointed at him, nodding her head to herself. "Yes, I know you. You are the one who was in New York."

Loki's interest was piqued. He leaned forward and looked her in the eye. "You know me?"

"What is your name?" She asked, but she didn't give him time to respond as she continued to talk. "I was there. I was in New York when that happened. I-I... saw." Loki could tell, this woman was definitely traumatized. Strangely enough, he felt a little bad for her. She seemed like a perfectly innocent woman, but that wasn't enough to make him regret his choices.

"I am Loki." He didn't know how to respond to her ramblings. "Who are you?"

The woman looked at him with wide eyes, then looked at her feet. She seemed even more nervous and awkward now that Loki had asked for her name. She began to play with her hair in her nervousness, but eventually answered him.

"I am Bereit."

Loki never thought he'd actually meet someone here and engage in conversation with a Midgardian. He never would have thought himself to stoop so low, but he actually didn't mind talking to her. She wasn't the best at conversations, but she wasn't godawful, and it was actually quite a nice change to talk to someone instead of staying cooped up in a tiny, bland hospital room.

They talked for a little while, about nothing in particular. Loki was interested in what brought her to the hospital, but she wasn't really willing to talk about that yet, and Loki respected that. Loki was also interested in her story of what happened in New York, and she was complient to talk about that, though, none of it really made sense. Loki wasn't sure if her memories were warped due to her being so obviously, heavily medicated, or if she just remembered things differently than he did because she was obviously in a different mindset, different area, different situation entirely.

As they both sat in the quiet area, now talking about sibling rivalry, a staff member approached them,

"Hey, we're going to have group time in a minute."

"O-okay." Bereit spoke, but Loki didn't. He didn't know what 'group time' was and frankly, it sounded like something he'd probably do in school in his youth.

"Isn't it patronizing?" He asked Bereit. "Being in a place like this? With a quiet area, doing art projects? Like we're elementary children?"

"N-no..." She averted her gaze once more. "It's... it's kind of relaxing for me." Loki didn't have to urge her on to explain her meaning. "... When I'm at home, I'm so out of control, I can't think, I can't breathe."

"How long have you been here?" Loki wasn't sure he'd get a good response out of her, but it didn't hurt to ask anyway.

"Three weeks." Bereit then stood up from where she was sitting and started to walk away, but not without turning back to look at Loki and say, "C-come on."

Reluctantly, Loki followed.

As expected, 'group time' was just what it sounded like. All of the patients and the two staff members who were on duty did a 'group' activity after telling everyone their names, how they were feeling, and a goal they had for that day. Loki didn't want to engage in the 'activities' at all, they were absolutely pointless and had little to nothing to do with his 'getting better'. But, he did it anyway, after seeing how Bereit seemed to feel better after telling everyone of her goal to talk to staff whenever she wasn't feeling safe.

It was interesting to hear the other goals and feelings of the group. Loki kept his answers short. He didn't want to get any more involved than he absolutely needed to.

Once the group time had finished, they were all dismissed to do whatever they pleased until the next group started, which would be in another fifteen minutes or so. Bereit had taken to following him around and it was beginning to annoy him.

"Y-you're different." She said. "You're not the person that was in New York." Loki didn't respond. There wasn't a point to it. She wasn't in her right mind, she wasn't worth the effort to argue with. "T-the person in New York was... was... I don't know. Different."

"What did you see in New York?" He asked, already knowing the answer, but wanting to hear her say it once more.

"I saw destruction." Bereit responded quietly. "You are not destructive."

"You don't know me." Loki mumbled, low enough that Bereit didn't hear him. They didn't talk much after that, Loki wanted to be left alone and Bereit was getting pretty tired of talking herself. They went their separate ways.

...

Thor and Tony were on the elevator, a few minutes earlier than 8pm, headed to Loki's floor, dressed in their casual clothes again. Thor was looking a little anxious, but Tony kept his usual facade of cool.

"Do you really believe he is concocting a plan? That this is just some sort of game he is playing?" Thor asked. Tony shrugged.

"It might be." Came Tony's response. Tony noticed Thor's face as it fell. "But, hey! Who knows? Maybe there's a good, logical explanation for all of this, yeah?" Thor's face didn't improve much, but at least there was a glimmer of hope in his eyes.

"And Loki is aware that we are coming?"

"He should be."

The elevator dinged and told them they were on the right floor. When they stepped out of the elevator there was a wide, dark metal door with a little window through it. Next to the door there was a little button, one that Tony had guessed was used to alert the hospital staff of visitors. Figures the hospital would have pretty tight security. He pressed the button and waited. Thor stood impatiently behind him, glancing around, looking jumpy as ever. Tony sighed.

Thor nearly jumped out of his skin when a face appeared in the little window in the door. It was one of the staff members, an Asian man, appeared to be in his thirties. He smiled and opened the door from the other side.

"Hey." He seemed friendly enough. "Who're you here to see?" He held the door open for the two of them and they stepped in, noticing there was another, less heavy door a few feet in front of the metal one.

"Loki." Thor chimed.

"Ah, okay. He should be expecting you." He opened the second door and led them into the common area of the ward. "Please, wait here while I go get him. I think he's in his room." Tony nodded and the man went off down the hallway of doors.

"How're you doing, big guy?" Tony asked Thor, who still looked a little jumpy.

"I'll just be glad when I see my brother." Thor answered honestly.

Loki followed the male staff worker, looking a little tired as if he'd just woken up. Though, his face did brighten a little once he saw Thor. In that same instant, it dropped when he saw Tony.

"What's this one doing here?" Loki growled as he pointed to Stark.

"Stark has accompanied me here, he helped arrange for me to see you, Loki." Thor tried to explain, but Loki did not want to hear it.

"I do not want him here."

Tony did not have to be told twice. He gladly spoke up,

"Hey, no problem, Rudolf. I'll be happy to leave you to your _brotherly bonding_."

Loki snarled and watched as Tony motioned for the staff worker to escort him out of the ward. Once Tony was leaving, Loki looked to Thor. Another staff member approached them, Ms. Becky who was on the night shift.

"Would you two like to sit down? You can feel free to sit in the kitchen, if you'd like."

"That would be excellent, m'lday." Thor said. Loki rolled his eyes as Becky giggled a little. They walked to the area behind the common place, where there were chairs and tables, and they mutually picked a table and sat down.

"It's good to see you, Thor." Loki admitted.

"What are you doing here, Loki? Because if this is another one of your schemes, I swear, I will stop you."

Loki only chuckled at Thor's question. "Aren't you just going to take me back to Asgard anyway? Why pretend to be so civil?"

"I have been told that you can get 'help' here. I didn't want the people of Earth to panic at the knowledge that you have returned."

"Ah." Loki nodded. "So you're just trying to get all the credit of my capture for yourself."

"Stop, brother." Thor struggled to keep his voice down, remembering where he was. "I just wanted to see how you were doing. I cannot understand why you'd allow yourself to remain here."

"Maybe I don't want to be the_ enemy _anymore, Thor." Loki wasn't really thinking when he spoke, his words were like vomit, just spewing out of his mouth before he could control them and hold them back. "Maybe I just need a change."

Thor was taken back, he wasn't used to Loki acting this way and it worried him that he couldn't tell if Loki was trying to manipulate him or not. It felt so close to talking to the times when they'd talk when they were both younger. He wasn't sure if he should trust Loki or not.

"Why now, Loki?" Thor asked. "Why this sudden need for 'change'?"

"Help was offered, I accepted." Loki stated as a matter-of-fact-ly. "I would think you, of all people, Thor, would be happy to see me change."

"I am very pleased to see you trying to make good of yourself..." Thor began. "But it's never ended with you actually doing good. You've always had some other plan."

"Have you always seen me as evil?"

"No, Loki... Even when you brought the Jotuns into Asgard, even when you tried to take over Midgard, I never saw you as evil. You were my brother, as you still are."

Loki stared at the ground. He didn't feel like arguing over whether or not they were actually brothers.

"Loki..." Loki didn't move his head, but his eyes looked up at Thor. "How are you... really?"

"I'm better, Thor."

"Do you want to leave here? I can easily get you out of this place, you don't belong here."

"When I decide to leave, I'll do it on my own. And then, if you can find me, you can attempt to bring me back to the Allfather."

"You still have to face your punishment for your crimes, Loki. Being here won't change what you did."

"That does not matter." Loki whispered. Thor didn't understand, but he was talking about Thanos and The Other. "I'll face my punishment whether I'm on Asgard or not." Both Thor and Loki went quiet for a little while. Both feeling a little awkward before their conversation started up again.

This time, the topic had changed completely. They were talking about their mother, Frigga. Loki had asked how she had been doing since Loki had left Asgard. To which, Thor responded that Frigga was rather upset with Loki, but more worried than anything. Then Thor went on to mention how livid Odin was and they both laughed at Thor's imitation of their angry father.

Their discussion evolved into memories of their childhood. Both of them laughed when Loki brought up the time when he'd cut off Sif's gorgeous blonde hair and he had to replace it with a dark wig. Then Thor brought up the incident with Skadi and the goat. Thor laughed a lot harder at that than Loki did. (Though, Loki really didn't laugh at all. That was a traumatizing moment for him and he'd rather not relive it.)

Time passed so quickly and it was already 9pm. A staff member approached them and told them that visiting hours were ending.

"Oh, Thor..." Loki smiled. "You know you're going to make me lonesome when you go."

"I will be back to visit you, brother." Thor smiled back. "Please don't disappoint me. I want you to better yourself." And with that, Thor stood up and allowed himself to be escorted by staff to the door.

Loki stood up as well and returned to his room, still smiling.

* * *

Author's Notes:

Okay, so, I think some people might be a little confused as to why Loki remains here, despite having his full power. Like, why doesn't he just escape, right?

In my story, I tried to illustrate that Loki is a very proud person. He has a lot of bravado and pride, but it was hurt greatly when he was first sedated. That sort of sent him into a depression of sorts. From that point on, he decides he does want the help that the hospital has to offer as he's tired of being so powerful yet never receiving what it is he truly desires. (Which is unattainable anyway) Loki wants to be seen as an equal to the Aesir, he hates himself because he feels he is always beneath the Aesir due to his Jotun blood, so he acts out in order to make himself feel worthy.

I was going to make this note longer, but I decided to just add a scene in the story that explains this much better than I can.

I also got a little review from Loki himself, and in response I must say:

I'm sorry, Loki baby, for putting you in this situation. I know it sucks, but you definitely need help.

Anyway, thanks for reading. :)

And P.S. I didn't really check this chapter, it was sort of an inflammatory writ and I've been sick with headaches that haven't allowed me to actually sit and read through all of this properly like I usually do, so if you find any mistakes PLEASE let me know and I will fix them!

P.S.S. (Or however that works, right?) Her name is pronounced "Bear-it".

\- Rawiyah


	5. The Peace

Summary: AU. After escaping imprisonment on Asgard, Loki returns to earth, only to find himself in a different sort of prison... A psychiatric ward.

* * *

**Chapter Five: The Peace**

That night was one Loki thought would be most difficult, but it was more annoying than anything. He could hear as a patient was obviously psychotic, screaming at the staff members and attempting to flee from them late at night. He heard as they came to the other side of his door and locked it from the outside. He would have been offended, thinking that they could contain him with a simple locked door, but he knew better. It was for his safety, not the safety of the others.

He heard bumping, knocking as he assumed they had tackled the patient, in the same fashion they had tackled him and sedated him. Things went silent then, and that's how it stayed for the rest of the night.

...

"I-I wasn't scared." Bereit wasn't eating. Loki was under the impression that she never, truly ate here. "I a-am used to the screaming." She looked down at her tray that sat in front of her, it didn't have much on it, just a small box of Cheerios, a little carton of skim milk and some packets of brown sugar. She didn't make any attempts to eat it, however.

"I'd imagine it would be hard to get used to... for a Midgardian." Loki snorted. "You people lead such dull, boring lives. I'm sure you're not used to the cries of battle and outrage of war." Loki leaned back in his chair and took a bite of the green apple in his hand. Sure, the apples weren't like Idunn's golden ones on Asgard, but they were familiar food he didn't mind eating here on Midgard.

Bereit pushed her tray away and lowered her head. She idly played with her fingers and began to chew on her bottom lip, looking as if she were thinking of saying something. She didn't, and Loki didn't push it.

Loki could feel the eyes of the other patients as they watching him, carefully, obviously. Most of them probably knew who he was, though they all kept their distance. And those that didn't know who he was, probably didn't know what was going on anyway. Loki snorted again, deciding to not finish the apple.

Bereit didn't say anything more. She only stood up from where she was sitting at the table and walked over to where the morning shift staff held the machine that read vitals. Loki didn't really care anymore if he offended her or not, it didn't really matter either way. He had bigger problems to deal with. Such as, this being his third day, his last day here. He'd have to be sent back to Asgard in just a matter of hours now.

That was his biggest worry. With Thor, he knew he could possibly stand a chance against Thanos' rage. On Asgard, he'd be a sitting duck. Though, he didn't mind being a sitting duck if it would delay his suffering a little, if at all possible. Loki stood up, himself. He knew who he needed to see.

...

"The 72 hour hold is going to be up late tonight." Stark said.

"But... how did anyone even get close enough to him to knock him out and bring him to a hospital?! I mean, that had to be some pretty powerful stuff to knock him out for so long." Bruce was still in shock after Tony explained the first time, let alone after he explained it three more times.

"Yeah, well, if you ask me, I think this is all just one of his little plans. He's probably trying to gain some sympathy from us so we'll lower our guard and then he'll attack! Like a little chihuahua." Tony imitated a little chihuahua barking and baring it's teeth. But Bruce wasn't paying attention.

"Don't let Clint hear about this." Bruce crossed his leg one over the other as he stood leaning against the wall of the kitchen in Stark's tower. "He'll demand that they give Loki electroconvulsive therapy and then put him in a straightjacket in the padded room."

"Don't let Clint here about what?"

Both Bruce and Tony jumped. Natasha had just come out of the elevator that led into the kitchen. She wasn't in uniform or anything, just wearing a nice sundress with a lollipop snug between her red lips.

"How the hell did you get in here?!"

"Oh, come on, Tony. As if I couldn't easily hack through your security system." Natasha smirked as she came and sat down on a stool at the kitchen counter. "No, I'm just joking, Bruce said you might need me."

Tony shot Bruce a hot, angry glance then turned back to Natasha.

"So what happened?" She asked, slowly pulling the little sphere shaped lollipop out of her mouth.

"What? Nothing happened. What are you talking about?" Tony didn't even try to sound natural. He shifted his eyes around suspiciously trying to add to the innocent act.

"Come on, Stark. Don't do that." Natasha groaned.

"Loki escaped from his 'unescapable' jail in Asgard and came back to Earth but instead of causing trouble he's hold up in some mental hospital."

"Thanks, Bruce."

Tony sent another, hot, angry glare at Bruce.

"What? There'd be no point in me telling her to come here if I didn't tell her why she was here."

"So, what? Are we going to get him out and hand him over to S.H.I.E.L.D.? What's our objective?" Natasha asked. Tony rubbed his temples with the tips of his fingers, groaning softly, but answering her nonetheless.

"No. He was arrested and put under a 72-hour hold. This is his last day, his 72 hours should be up later on tonight. I called Bruce over because I knew he could easily use his powerful, green rage monster to _persuade _Loki to not to anything stupid. Thor does NOT want S.H.I.E.L.D. involved. According to him, Loki isn't a threat to Earth right now."

"Do you believe him?" Bruce asked. Tony's fingers ran through his hair and paused at the back of his neck, where he slowly started rubbing to ease the tension.

"Well... I mean... I guess a little? He didn't seem all that threatening when he was in the hospital. I mean, his hair wasn't combed, he was wearing a T shirt and jeans."

"Loki. Wearing a T shirt and jeans?" Natasha smirked.

"Yeah! You know it took me a while to get used to it too."

"Where is Thor? Shouldn't he be involved in our plan? What was he going to do once Loki is released?"

"If." Tony corrected Bruce. "If Loki is released. The man at the desk said if Loki wasn't feeling better in 72 hours they'd put a 52...5...? Some sort of code on him that meant he'd have to stay for another 14 days."

"Then we'll have to plan for that too, if that happens." Natasha sort of whispered, not really talking to them, just mentioning it to herself, really.

"You still didn't answer my question, Tony!" Bruce huffed. "Where is Thor?"

"Ah, Thor...?" Tony avoided Bruce's eye contact. "He's on Asgard."

"Why?!" Natasaha and Bruce said simultaneously.

"You know... Status reports to his old man. He's the goodie two shoes kid now."

...

"Were you able to find Loki?" Frigga looked as though she hadn't gotten much sleep. She ran to Thor, holding out her hands to embrace him as she always did when he returned from a quest.

Thor wanted to lie. He wanted to hide the truth from her, so that she wouldn't tell Odin that Loki had been found. Thor knew Odin would be very, very enraged to know that Thor went to Midgard, found Loki, came back to Asgard and did not return Loki. Odin was always one for harsh punishments and Thor would rather avoid it if he could. But, he couldn't bring himself to lie to his own mother. She was always so worried for Loki, he didn't want her to worry anymore.

"Yes." And as Thor predicted, her whole face, her whole aura lit up with hope. She smiled and embraced Thor tightly, squeezing him close to her.

"Thanos hasn't gotten to my son." She whispered triumphantly. "I worry for his safety, Thor." She whispered in his ear. Thor pulled away from the hug, feeling guilty for what he was going to say.

"He is... alive, but he is not well." Thor admitted. Frigga looked confused, urging Thor to continue. "He is being held in bedlam on Midgard. He claims he is receiving help, but we both know, mother, he does not belong in a place like that."

"But, he is safe?" She was still hopeful. "Thanos does not know where he is?"

"Thanos?" Thor wasn't sure they were on the same page. He didn't know what Thanos had to do with his younger brother. Frigga didn't feel the need to explain, and Thor didn't feel the need to press for more information from his mother. "Loki is safe."

"Are you going to bring him back?"

"Yes. Loki is going to be released from bedlam on Midgard soon and I must return to be there for him." Thor began to turn on his heels and walk away, but Frigga reached out and pulled Thor into a quick, warm embrace.

"Bring him back safe, Thor." She whispered in his ear. Thor kissed his mother's cheek, then took off quickly down the hall back to the rebuilt Bifrost.

...

"Loki, it's your last day here." Dr. Braun said as she studied Loki, who seemed like a much calmer person than the one she had originally seen two days ago. Even when she saw him yesterday, he seemed calmer than the person she saw two days ago. "How are you feeling?"

"Does that really matter? In mere hours you're going to send me off into the world to do whatever I want with myself, regardless of how I feel."

"That's not true, Loki. This is only your last day if you want it to be."

"What?"

"You're doing much better, but you're still a threat to others and yourself. You're still very depressed and I worry that if I were to discharge you now, you may... do something that will make me regret discharging you."

"You think I'm going to commit suicide?"

"You've made statements in the last couple of days of wanting to make everyone kneel, you also said that if people did not cooperate with you, you'd destroy Earth" Dr. Braun said softly. "And I think you're still keen on that idea."

"Yes. I was meant to be a king."

"Are you still keen on destroying Earth?"

"Perhaps we should put it this way. I'm still a God."

"I just feel... that perhaps you should stay a little longer. We can still work on some healthy coping skills for you, help you feel better about your sense of worth, Loki. I know it's a hospital and hospitals are always a drag, but I really think you'd be much happier if you'd let me treat you a little longer." Dr. Braun spoke with sincerity that Loki could feel. It was almost a scary feeling, to have someone actually want to help that much. Someone other than Frigga, who had no choice but to care because Loki was her son.

"In case you're wondering, Mr. Stark called and said he'd take care of any charges. So if you want to stay, Loki, you can."

Loki agreed, he wanted to stay a little longer. He wanted to get better. The way he saw it, if he was going to die, he'd rather do it, at least, with a good view of himself, and knowing that he was proud of all he's done.

Dr. Braun told Loki she was considering putting him on a medication called Clozapine as well as an antidepressant called Effexor. Loki didn't like the sound of either of those, and he lied to the doctor that he'd take them. But he knew no Midgardian medicines would have any effect on him. They weren't very observing. He knew he could just hide the medication somewhere and no one would know he hasn't taken them.

They began his next short session. Loki told her about how his father made him feel, and she listened. Which, meant so much to Loki. No one really listened to him in his adulthood besides Frigga, but he didn't want to talk to him mom all the time. What kid does, right? This felt like such a weight lifted from his shoulders.

Dr. Braun listened to him, writing down what he was saying and then going in and giving him a question that would engage his brain in thoughts of how he could have coped better. It was enlightening to Loki. On Asgard, they didn't think like that. On Asgard, everything was solved with fighting, not reason and logic. Loki had longed for a word where logic and intellect would be the answer to quarrels. But, on Asgard, he was only used to fighting. And what made him feel worse, he was not considered a powerful fighter. Not like Thor and Odin, anyway.

At the end of their session, she handed Loki a sheet of paper with words and boxes on it.

"It's a diary card." She said to him. "You rate your feelings on it, zero to ten, zero being you're not feeling them at all, and ten being the worst you've ever felt. It'll track your suicidal thoughts, self harm urges, feelings, and use of the skills I teach you."

"I never did like homework..." Loki mumbled. Dr. Braun smiled.

"It'll help. I promise. You should get yourself ready, vising hours are in a little while and your brother should be here to see you."

...

Just as expected, Thor arrived on time. But unfortunately, he brought his worthless friends. Loki frowned. He was looking forward to just spending time with Thor and not have to be bothered with the prying ears of his little_ friends_.

"Brother!" Thor bellowed and he embraced Loki tightly.

"Let go of me... you big oaf." Loki snarled. He looked at the two people that Thor had brought along. Stark wasn't there. But he recognized Dr. Bruce Banner. The memory of the green beast slamming him into the ground made him feel a little sick to his stomach. Thor released his hold on Loki and Loki backed away a little. Thor looked at the other visitor Thor brought, he wasn't sure if he recognized this one. He had blond hair, blue eyes. Tall. His eyes looked familiar though. It reminded him of the Man Out Of Time... Perhaps that was him, he just couldn't tell without that hideous red, white and blue getup he wore.

"Loki. Let us sit!" Thor sent a few friendly pats to Loki's back, and Loki's frown deepened. He wasn't at all happen with Thor bringing friends. As Thor and Loki walked to the tables of the kitchen, with Banner and the mysterious blond following, he heard the blond one whisper,

_I owe you that 20 bucks. _

Then he heard,

_Man I need to stop making bets with people._

They sat down, Thor right next to Loki, and Thor's friends across from them at the round table.

"How have you been faring, brother?" Thor asked, his smile did not fall since he first arrived.

"I'm staying a little longer, Thor. Just until I'm able to figure out a plan."

"A plan for what?" The blond one asked. Loki didn't answer him.

"Please, tell us, brother."

"Just a plan to escape from Thanos."

"Who is Thanos?" Thor wondered.

"Ah, so Frigga never told you? She came to me when I made my deal with Thanos. I told her it wasn't a good time to talk. We never got the chance to talk since then. I will never find out what she wanted to tell me."

"Is he the one that lent you the army?" Bruce asked.

Loki shied away from Bruce a little bit, trying his best to look as though he was just leaning against his brother and NOT look like he was trying to hide.

"Yes." Loki didn't want to hear any more questions, so he just spoke to avoid anymore. "The Other said, 'there'd be no realm, no barren moon, no crevice' where they can't find me. They're coming after me, Thor. It's tearing me apart letting my mind marinate on that each day."

Thor was completely convinced his brother was telling the truth and was willing to bring all of Asgard's finest troops to protect the hospital premises if it meant his brother stayed safe, but Tony and Steve felt otherwise, though, neither of them had the heart to tell Thor.

"Did you see Frigga?" Loki asked, changing the subject.

"She misses you. I promised that I would return you home to her."

_I miss her too_. Loki's mind spoke, but the words died on his tongue. He'd give anything to see her again, even if it were just for a moment. They didn't have pictures or portraits on Asgard. He's just have to rely on his imagination if he wanted to see her. Thor gave Loki another (gentler) pat on the back.

Thor and Loki continued their conversation while Bruce and Steve just watched, mostly, they'd throw in their two cents here and there but most of the gods' conversation was of foreign content to them.

It wasn't until almost forty five minutes later that Loki started talking about what he did in therapy. That caught everyone's attention and Bruce was interested to hear how Loki was coping, or, learning to cope for that matter.

"They have us doing art projects, talking about our feelings, our experiences, playing dull, boring, board games... They treat us like school children. It's patronizing."

"Loki, those are activities to increase your cognitive skills. They help build your cognition and it's supposed to be very good for... well... you know."

"I'm sure it's great for stupid Midgardians. But they are beneath me." Loki huffed. "I only stay for my one on one sessions with my doctor and the resident psychologist."

"I guess that's good." Steve piped in. Trying to keep the conversation pleasant.

"Hmph."

"It looks almost like you've finally found some peace, Loki." Thor smiled. Loki averted his gaze and stared and Thor's lap. Maybe Thor was right? He had finally found peace, or at least, found the path that led to peace. He could understand what Bereit was saying now. How she felt out of control, like she could not breathe. Loki understood.

They all remained quiet for a while, just staring at the table.

...

Odin was growing impatient. Frigga hasn't told him anything, as Thor has stressed before he left that Odin shouldn't know that Loki has been found.

"Where did you say Thor is?!" Odin yelled at Heimdall. Heimdall, who, just remained as calm and still has he always had.

"He is on Midgard, my Lord."

"Send three of my best warrior to Midgard. Thor has taken too long and I grow tired of his meandering."

"Yes, my Lord."

With that, Odin turned around and took off on Sleipnir down the rainbow bridge.

* * *

Author's Notes:

I've decided to add Thanos/The Other into the story a little, but I don't know if they're going to make a huge appearance, as, I haven't read the comics and I don't really know Thanos as a character well enough except from what I've seen on Guardians of The Galaxy and that little bit of The Avengers. I also don't know if I could characterize the other well enough. But I'm willing to give it a try when that comes, if it comes.

In response to a review, will I add Odin and Frigga to Loki's recovery? I think Loki will have to forgive Odin in order to move on, so there'll be some of that in the story, but as far as will Odin and Loki's parent-child relationship be fixed? I don't know. If I can figure a way to get it to work in the story, I might. But I've always seen Odin as sort of a bad parent, to both Thor and Loki. He's too proud and I feel that gets in the way of his parenting skills. I will definitely focus more on Loki's relationship with Frigga, as I can better write about motherly relationships in feminine characters.

Sorry this story has been progressing pretty slowly. I've been having issues with figuring out what the plot should be and where it should come into play. Originally, I thought the plot should be, "Loki is in a psych ward, Loki gets better." but that does seem boring, so I'm going to add some Odin drama and some angst on Loki's end.

Hope you're all doing well.

I'm sick, so my updates might be a little slower than usual.

Sorry!

\- Rawiyah


	6. The Streets

Summary: AU. After escaping imprisonment on Asgard, Loki returns to earth, only to find himself in a different sort of prison... A psychiatric ward.

* * *

**Chapter Six: The Streets**

Thor would spend every, single night with Loki if he possibly could. He's pitch a tent next to the hospital door and sleep there if he could. He never wanted to leave Loki's side now that he knew that Loki was possibly being hunted by Thanos and The Other.

It made his blood boil. How dare anyone manipulate his brother! The prince of Asgard! Thor grit his teeth as he thought about smashing Thanos' head in. Oh, it was a most glorious thought, too! He didn't even notice the conversation going on with the other Avengers...

"He is definitely lying, then!" Tony barked. "That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard! He wasn't manipulated by anyone, Loki is a prankster at it's finest and he probably had every intention to go out into the universe and find some metal, glow-y stick thing of destiny and pound the living hell out of Earth so that he could take it over for himself."

"That would explain why no one has come for him thus far." Natasha spoke evenly. "If he were really being hunted, wouldn't there have been a sign long before now? I mean, it's been, what? Two, going on three years since Loki tried to take over Earth? Why would Thanos... Thanos, right? Why would Thanos wait for so long?"

"Maybe he's trying to scare Loki? Maybe that's how he got Loki to accept the scepter in the first place? Using old fashioned scare tactics?" Steve added.

"Loki doesn't seem like the type to scare easy." Bruce said. "But, it's definitely possible."

"Stark," Steve pointed to Tony for emphasis. "When we first captured Loki, remember? And then it started lightening, didn't Loki look scared then?"

Tony thought for a moment.

"He did look a little spooked, I guess." Tony thought about it harder. He could barely remember that incident, he could barely remember what he ate for breakfast! But it came to him quick as a puppy comes to the dinner table! "Yes! He did look scared. I remember saying to him, 'What, are you scared of a little lightening?' Turns out it was his brother coming to scold him!"

The others looked at Thor, who was still off in his own world. It was quiet for a little while, and everyone started waiting for someone else to talk first.

Finally, it was Steve who broke the ice.

"So he is capable of getting scared."

"It just doesn't add up. Something doesn't seem right about all of this." Tony pondered on it for a moment. "So... what are we supposed to do about it now that we know? THOR!"

Thor finally snapped out of his daydream.

"Yes, Stark?" Tony repeated his question. "I would greatly prefer if we protected Loki, here while he's on Midgard until he completes his..." Thor tried to find a word that would make sense. Training? That was the word he wanted to use, but Loki wasn't training. Not like a warrior would, anyway... "... time in bedlam. Then, I shall return him to Asgard."

"You swear on that, right? You will take him back? And I don't need to get S.H.I.E.L.D. involved?" Natasha spoke, "Because if he gets out and somehow uses his typical 'big brother, I love you' charm, then I'm getting S.H.I.E.L.D. on his ass ASAP."

"I swear!" Thor roared. The others backed up a little. Thor realized that he must have sounded too angry, too pushy. He lowered his arm that he hadn't realized he'd lifted into the air.

"I swear I will bring Loki back." Thor continued. "But while Loki remains here on Midgard, I will protect him with my life, for he is still my brother." _And I love him_. But those words never made it passed Thor's lips. The others just nodded, understanding that 'protect and return' was Thor's only plan.

...

Loki has been trying to figure out what brought Bereit to the hospital since day one. If he was going to spend another few days there, he'd want to spend his free time, at least, getting to know the person he'd spend most of his time with. Of course, when he asked her straight out why she was there, she'd always get extra shy and change the subject. Today, he'd be clever and trick her into answering his queries.

"Who is that?" He asked as he pointed to a woman who was sitting down in front of the TV. She had stringy, thin blonde hair that came to her waist and she was overweight. Her face was puffy and her cheeks were red. She was wearing a very, very large T-Shirt that was a dark, Navy blue and sweatpants. Bereit turned her head to see where he was pointing.

"T-that's Pam." She said.

"What's she here for?" Loki asked. He noticed that when she was talking about other people, Bereit seemed a little less anxious.

"She's bipolar. H-her boyfriend dropped her here when she got really... m-manic and tried to kill herself in front of her children."

Loki was quiet, thinking. Then he pointed to a man who was sitting at one of the kitchen tables. He was reading a magazine, he looked like an older man, he wasn't wearing street clothes, just the scrubs the hospital provided. "Who is that?" Loki asked.

"That's James. He's a c-convict, but in jail he was diagnosed with Antisocial Personality Disorder. He's t-transitioning by coming here because he's going to be released from jail soon."

"And who's that?" A young man, probably in his early twenties. His eyes were wild like Bereit's and his hair was long and messy. He was pacing back and forth through the long hallway of the ward. His eyes on the ground the entire time. He wore headphones on his ears, though, Loki didn't know the reason. He seemed dazed.

"That's Tyler." Bereit tried to motion headphones as she continued. "He wears those headphones because he is s-schizophrenic and it helps him to block out the voices."

"Do you like wearing headphones?" Loki asked.

"N-no..." Bereit started to play with her hair. "I-I don't like anything on my ears, it kind of scares me when I have something c-covering... my ears besides my pillow and m-my hair."

"And why is that?"

"M-my husband used to hit my ears and they would s-swell up. Sometimes I thought th-they'd swell up so much that I couldn't hear and I'd be deaf. W-when my ears are covered, it reminds me of when he'd hit me."

Loki contemplated that. Why would her husband hit her? What kind of marriage was that? Loki has never been married, he couldn't be certain, but on Asgard there was absolutely no way a man would ever hit his wife. Not unless they were sparring, of course, but that was unlikely. Women were not usually warriors who needed to spar. It didn't make much sense to Loki, so he asked Bereit more...

"Why did he hit you?"

"H-he gets mad because I... I... I accuse him o-of cheating on me." Bereit didn't notice that Loki didn't understand what she meant by 'cheating'. But she somehow addressed Loki's confusion anyway. "... I thought he was sleeping w-with other women. A-a-and he got mad."

"Did he bring you here?"

"Y-yeah." Bereit looked very anxious now. Her eyes were wild again and they darted all around the quiet area where she and Loki were sitting. She slowly began rocking back and forth, so slowly at first that Loki thought nothing of it, then she began to rock a little faster, and faster. Still, Loki didn't really care what was happening to her, he wanted to soothe his own furious curiosity.

"When did he bring you here?"

Bereit's eyes started to well up with tears. She bit her bottom lip and started shaking even more violently. "H-h-he brought me here... after... after I-I-I... t-tried to stab him."

"But why, Bereit? Why did you try to stab him?"

"H-he..." Bereit almost got the words out completely, he was so close to getting his answer as to why she was there, then something snapped in Bereit. He could see a complete and total physical change in her that he hadn't seen in anyone else ever before. Bereit's eyes dried and they somehow looked a lot less wild. Her composure changed and her posture became straighter. It was suddenly as if she had more confidence, which, felt odd to Loki. More confidence? How can one feel more confidence when just about to share something so intimate?

"Ah, damn." Bereit said. "Hospital again."

Loki was confused. "Who are you?" He asked, knowing that it was no longer Bereit he was sitting with.

"... I'm Berry." Bereit's body said. Loki nodded, something was definitely not right with this one. "I am guessing you were talking with Bereit? Probably wondering what brought us here?"

Loki nodded.

"I'm sorry if she scared you. We have Dissociative Identity Disorder. Bereit was raped by her husband one too many times, I usually come out when that happens, but sometimes it just doesn't work out that way. She lost it and tried to stab him. He knew that she hadn't been taking her anxiety medication and drove us here." Berry sighed. "Bereit will be back, so don't worry yourself, sweet cheeks." She smiled. "I come out only when she's feeling too anxious. She doesn't know I exist. To tell you the truth, I didn't know she existed until a few months ago after her husband took us to see a therapist."

"Ah, I see." Loki was still pondering the fact that Bereit had been raped by her husband. He could understand her feelings. He really could, having fallen victim to rape, himself in the past. A rape which actually resulted in him giving birth, which was a thought he partially hated, but was partially... for he truly did love Sleipnir.

Loki and Berry were both interrupted when the staff member who was watching them from the other side of the room stood up and approached them.

"Loki, it's time for your meeting with your doctor."

...

Loki didn't really feel like talking today. Dr. Braun studied Loki's diary card and made some notes. Loki just stared into the wall, not really focusing on anything in particular, though he was feeling pretty sick now.

"I noticed your depression seems to be a bit high, Loki." She said. "How have you been feeling on the Effexor?"

"I feel the same." It wasn't a total lie. Loki did feel the same, but he felt that way because he hadn't taken the medication. He just hid it under his tongue then slipped it under his pillow later once the nurse left the room. "But your Midgardian medicines will have no effect on me."

"Ah, yes, I know that Loki, you've told me before, but I still really appreciate you taking the medication anyway."

Loki didn't even feel bad for lying. Truth was, he just wanted to talk a little bit about what has been bothering him so and then he was planning to go straight to his room, flop down face first on the bed and sleep.

"Tell me more about your depression, Loki. Is there something that's making it worse?"

"No... but I know someone that makes it better." Loki mumbled that last bit of his statement, and he didn't think Dr. Braun had heard him until she responded,

"Who makes it better, Loki?"

Loki seized up a little, trying to think of something to say that wasn't exactly the truth. It's normally so easy for Loki to come up with lies. They just spew from his mouth like water from a faucet. But he couldn't think of anything better than the truth.

"... my brother." He snarled as he noticed Dr. Braun was writing something down.

"I thought you didn't like him, Loki?"

"I don't!" Loki nearly shouted. "He's a brute, he's repulsive..."

"You obviously like something about him... What is it that you don't hate? What is it about him that makes you feel less depressed when you see him? Don't think I don't notice the way you seem to light up when he comes to visit."

Loki didn't like being put on the spot, and he'd never, ever admit to anyone except his friends... well, ex-friends now, on Asgard. He'd gladly climb to the tip top of the tallest Asgardian tower, rip of his clothes and declare his love for his brother. Of course, had it not been for him falling from the Bifrost and coming across Thanos... getting the scepter... trying to take over Midgard.

"There's nothing about him that I don't hate." Loki left it at that. He knew that she could tell he was lying, but she didn't press the issue. She just decided to move on, a wise choice.

"Your shame has been awfully high too, Loki... Tell me more about that."

"What would interest you?"

"I just want to hear about your shame, Loki. Why are you feeling so shameful? Is it being here?" Dr. Braun looked genuinely concerned. She gently ran her fingers through her thick, wavy red hair and brushed it behind her ear. She made full eye contact with Loki, which Loki avoided.

"I've been thinking about my... 'father' lately." Loki began. He opened his mouth to keep talking, but decided on not saying anything.

"Yes, go on..." Dr. Braun urged.

"He's always been so proud of Thor." Loki sighed. "I just wanted him to be proud of me. That's not why I attempted to take over Midgard. That was completely different... But... before I fell from the Bifrost, I told him that I could do it. I told him, I said, 'Father, I did it for you!' and he said, 'No, Loki'... As though I was his life's biggest disappointment." Loki only paused to take a breath. "It's as if he's never loved me! As if... As if everything I did just made him sad. Nothing I did could please him." He noticed that Dr. Braun looked as if she'd speak, but he cut her off with more of his rant. "Everything I do he doesn't care about, yet, when I do something wrong, he's always so willing to punish me for it. When I gave birth to Sleipnir he didn't congratulate me, didn't reward me in any way. As a father should. No, no, he just took Sleipnir as his own little gift and rides around on him as though he's another dumb horse."

"Do you believe he doesn't treat Thor the same way?"

"Of course he doesn't treat Thor the same way. Thor is the golden child, the first born, heir to the throne... a _true_ Asgardian!" Loki growled softly in his throat. "He could never bring himself to truly love a frost giant."

...

"I heard from Loki last night." Frigga didn't look at Odin as she laid in bed, a book covering her face. She didn't need to look at him to hear his feet and they turned quickly and his cloak flap in the air as he twisted to glare at her.

"What did he say?! Is he alright!" Odin demanded. Frigga lowered the book and looked at Odin with watery eyes.

"He misses me." She whispered. "... and I believe he misses you. Not the person you are now, he misses the father you used to be."

Odin turned away from Frigga. He couldn't bear to see the look on his wife's face once he told her that he'd sent warriors out to Midgard to go fetch him. He had already planned, no, promised that Loki would never see Frigga again.

"... He was never fond of me. Not then and definitely not now."

"Dear..." Frigga pulled back the silken covers of the bed and got to her feet. "I believe you and Loki will make amends." She approached Odin from behind, as his back faced her and she embraced him, leaning her head on his armored back.

"I've already sent the guards to go fetch him." Odin admitted.

"... what?" Frigga let go of Odin, backing away and the tears that were already threatening to spill from her eyes began to move and her eyes slowly turned pink. "Odin Borson!"

"He needs to pay for his crimes! He's been a trickster for far too long, he needs to learn to take punishment like a man and stop hiding behind his pathetic magic!"

"Odin Borson! He is your **son** and your son **first**!" Frigga screamed. "He's not just another prisoner that needs to face Asgardian justice, he's your son and my son and you are NOT treating him like another prisoner of war!" Frigga's face was burning and the tears fell unabashed. "You _will _make amends with him." With that, she turned on her heels and began to storm away from Odin. She pulled open the heavy, golden doors and left Odin in their room, by himself to marinate on what just occurred.

...

Thor visited Loki that day by himself. He didn't want the other Avengers involved this time, no, this time it was just about Loki and Loki's recovery.

"How are you fairing, brother?" Thor asked, noticing Loki's skin looked a little pale and he seemed pretty spacey.

"Better, Thor." Loki said. "Now that you're here." Loki scooted his chair closer to Thor and he leaned his head on his brother's shoulder. "I told you, you'd make me lonesome when you go." Thor felt so special, but Loki always had a way of making Thor feel even more special than all of the peasants and servants and friends he had on Asgard could.

"How has your assembly with your healers been fairing? Well, I hope?"

"Yes." Loki closed his eyes as he leaned on Thor. "Thor, the human mind is very strange."

"What is so strange about it?"

"I met a girl here, who looked only a few years younger than Sif, she was abused by her husband..." Loki sat up as he thought about it. "It caused her mind to rupture and split into two different personas."

"That does sound interesting."

"It's like nothing I've ever heard of before. I've never heard of someone being so badly hurt that it destroys their mind. If I had seen that on Asgard, if any of us had seen that on Asgard, we'd call it weakness, yet, they don't see it as such here. No, here, it is called Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder."

"Yes, on Asgard things are different, brother. This realm is very different in a lot of ways."

"This realm... This realm is so different. They appreciate strength in intelligence, strength in the mind instead of physical strength. They appreciate knowledge and use it to better the minds of those less fortunate."

Thor only nodded.

"Have you been back to Asgard?" Loki asked. Thor shook his head. This made Loki lean on him again and Loki took in a deep breath.

"I wish things could go back to the way they used to be." Loki mumbled softly.

"Yes, brother, I wish that too."

* * *

Author's Notes:

Sorry not much happened in this chapter. I wanted to slowly, slowly introduce Odin as I will have him more involved in the story. I will try to work on the father-son relationship between him and Loki, but I think it's going to happen in a weird way. Not sure about the direction on that.

I didn't add any Thanos/The Other drama yet, but they'll be here soon. Very soon.

I'm feeling a lot better, though, not as sick, but that means I've been busy with work. LOL. So that means I might be updating a little faster, hopefully.

The next chapter will show the Asgardian warriors landing on Midgard, finding Thor and demanding for Loki's whereabouts, which, by extension alerts S.H.I.E.L.D. Look forward to some drama about that.

I guess that's it for this note. It's a pretty short note, huh?

I don't even care about reviews anymore at this point. I really just love writing this story and even if no one reviews on it anymore, I'm still going to keep writing it because I absolutely love this story and I'm having a lot of fun writing it.

I'm having fun with Bereit. She's not a crazy important character, but I might give her a higher priority in this story than it seems. I've based her off a mixture of myself and my own experiences as well as the diagnosis and symptoms of a friend I had who had D.I.D. (Or Multiple personality disorder) She was interesting to write and I am really looking forward to somehow adding her into the next chapter somehow.

Okay. That's it. I'm done with this note.

Bye for now!

\- Rawiyah


	7. The Arrival

Summary: AU. After escaping imprisonment on Asgard, Loki returns to earth, only to find himself in a different sort of prison... A psychiatric ward.

* * *

**Chapter Seven: The Arrival**

They found Thor's whereabouts easily. It wasn't hard, Thor made himself known everywhere he went, even when he was trying to make himself invisible. That, and they had a little help from Heimdall, who told them exactly where to find Thor and his friends on Midgard.

The Bifrost could only take them so far, but it took them to where they needed to be. They landed just outside of Stark's newest building in Detroit. They didn't know that Tony was helping to rebuild the broken city, but they didn't know much about Midgard anyway. To them, the place looked absolutely hopeless, all except for the building that they were going to enter.

The Asgardian guards approached quietly, carefully, prepared to fight if the need arose. They slammed the doors off the hinges and entered fiercely. An alarm went off and bright, red lights flashed in all directions, confusing the guards and making the youngest of them a little frightened.

"Show yourselves!" The oldest guard called out to the empty space. "We do not cower in fear over your loud, wailing and flamboyant light fixtures!" But there was no response. The noise only seemed to get louder and the guards split up throughout the building looking for any sign of the Avengers. They didn't find any.

The guards came back together, torn between the decision to go out and actively look for Thor and Loki, or if they should sit and wait. After tedious scrutinizing of the situation (and fear of what the Allfather would say should they make themselves seem like any less capable of warriors) they decided to go out and look at Thor and Loki.

"Heimdall led us to the wrong place!" The youngest guard spoke. "He told us that Thor and the Avengers would be in this exact place!"

"Perhaps they were there when he last saw them, then they left as we were arriving Midgard?" Another guard offered. "It isn't as if travel to Midgard isn't lengthy."

The youngest guard was quiet, though, still very upset that his work had been made a lot more difficult. Midgard was pretty vast to him and looking for Thor and Loki, especially looking for Loki, would be like finding the bit of hay in a pile of needles. Yes, it would be that painful. Midgard was foreign, filled with foreign people, foreign languages, foreign everything! They'd NEVER find Thor or Loki if they had to search like that.

But, the older guards were certain that Thor couldn't have gotten too far away. They'd search and they'd find him in a matter of days at most.

...

Thor remembered his feelings for Loki. They never left, they were always there. He always loved his brother with such a deep, burning passion that no one else could seem to understand. That was why Thor had no other option but to protect Loki. Loki was his life, his world. Loki made Thor's world turn around and without Loki, he'd be nothing. The other Avengers couldn't understand, but they supported him in his endeavor anyway.

"He told me that he'd able to leave the hospital for a little while." Thor told Steve, who was half listening, half reading the paper, checking to see if there was any news of a UFO or something that might be a clue that Thanos was coming for Loki...

"Uh-huh." Steve mumbled.

"I am going to go to the hospital to take Loki... out." Thor turned away from Steve and began to talk to the window he was facing. "I have spoken to his healer... She believes that Loki would benefit greatly with me spending time with him. He's been given a three hour leave in which I can take Loki anywhere so long as Loki keeps the plastic band he's wearing on his wrist intact and as long as I return him back before the three hours is up."

Steve didn't make a response as he was too engrossed with reading the paper, getting distracted and reading other articles about newsworthy politicians and high school sports celebrities. Thor turned around to face Steve, who didn't even look up from the paper he was reading. Thor didn't seem to mind being ignored.

"I plan to take Loki to a 'bookstore'."

"Uh-huh... Wait, what?! You're taking Loki out of the ward?!" Steve dropped the paper on the counter and made full eye contact with Thor.

"I have just told you, Rogers, Loki is free to leave with me for three hours as long as he is in my sight and he wears his plastic hospital band."

"And you really think that's a good idea?!"

"I cannot see why it would not be."

"How do you know he's not going to betray you and run off and destroy what's left of Detroit?!"

"Sir, do you want me to refill your coffee?" A waitress asked as she was passing Thor and Steve's table at the diner.

"Sure." Steve huffed. The woman smiled and turned to go get the coffee. While she left, Steve looked at Thor with wide eyes covered in disbelief at his friend's ignorance, no... not ignorance, naivety! "He does not need to come out of the hospital, Thor. He hasn't even been there that long!"

"It's been almost a week." Thor commented, nonchalantly. "And as I said before, his healer has requested I spend more time with Loki alone."

"Did you tell Tony about... your plan?" Steve lowered his voice, realizing that S.H.I.E.L.D. had ears _everywhere_.

"Not as of yet." Thor whispered back. "I plan to tell him soon, however, as I need to have some form of communication with you, my friends, as I take Loki out."

Steve sighed. "I can guarantee Stark is just going to give you an old cell phone or something."

"If a 'cell phone' is a good form of communication, than that alone will suffice." Thor smiled. "I must go, I need to inform Stark of this, then I need to go and get Loki."

...

Tony didn't know what to do about Thor anymore. He gave Thor a cellphone, told him how to use it, gave him the number to call in case Loki got out of control, but still... He knew Thor didn't get it. Thor was a lost cause and Tony was 100% done with him.

Tony ran a hand through his hair and sighed as he made his way back to the Detroit tower from the bar just across town. It was a shabby little place, hardly ever crowded, but Tony loved going there any time he visited Detroit. He was certain once the people came back, so would the liveliness of the tavern.

He let out a long sigh as he slowly walked down the street, the Detroit tower slowly entering his line of vision... He was caught by surprise however, when a group of men, four of them, dressed in a beautiful, shimmering gold and silver, approached him rapidly, fiercely as though they were going to attack without question.

"Halt!" One of the men cried. Tony wasn't too sure what to do, he was a little drunk, but he wasn't stupid. He stopped in his tracks, shaking his head trying to see if the men would disappear, perhaps thinking they were just in his head. They didn't disappear. "Where is Thor?"

"Oh!" Tony let out a nervous chuckle. "Ah, you're some of Thor's friends..." He smiled, relieved. "Thor is out. I don't know where exactly, said he was going... to a bookstore."

"We demand that you tell us Thor's exact location."

"I'm sorry." Tony waved his hands in mock defeat. "I don't know where he is... exactly. You'll have to keep looking for him."

That same instant, he felt an annoying buzzing going off in his pants pocket. Irritated, Tony pulled out his slim, transparent cell phone and noticing that the call was coming from Nick Fury, he apologized to 'Thor's friends' and rabbited towards the Detroit building, still freaking out a little about Fury and praying that Fury didn't know about Loki being on Earth.

Once he was inside of the building and everything was secure, he crouched into the darkest corner of the room, just in case Fury already had eyes on him and he slowly slid his finger across the phone to unlock the screen. Then, he shakily brought it to his ear and spoke, trying to sound as nonchalant as he possibly could...

"Y'ello?" He said, _nonchalantly_.

"What the hell is going on, Stark?!" Nick Fury roared.

"Uhh, I have no idea what you-"

"You think I'm some sort of dumb ass, Mr. Stark?" Fury continued to rage and Tony could feel the fury (pun intended) through the ear piece. "That I wouldn't notice the damn Fellowship showing up here out of nowhere? Thor's sudden appearance a few days ago and now all of the other Avengers teamed up in Detroit?"

"Ah, well, that's really easy to explain... uh... Sir. You see, Thor was just-"

"Save it, Stark. I know that Loki is back and either you're going to tell me where he is, or I'm going to have to get really, really godamn angry."

"And, you're not angry now?" Tony asked. "Can I at least explain what's going on? Can I at least do that? It really isn't what you think."

"You have ten seconds."

"No, no, I need more time than that. I want the rest of the team here to explain as well. At least give us the chance to explain and then go off on your little rage tangent and bust Loki upside the head."

Tony heard Nick sigh heavily, but Nick and his heavy sighs were always a good sign that he was at least considering his words.

"Fine. I'll be in Detroit in three hours. You have until then to come up with whatever lame excuse you have for keeping this a secret." Nick hung up.

Tony sucked in a long breath, not realizing that he'd been holding his for a little while after Fury called. He was in deep shit now and it was Thor's fault! If only he and his brother could just get their shit together or keep it on some other planet where he didn't have to deal with it...

Well, there wasn't anything more to do now but contact the other Avengers and hope that they could string together some sentences to save their lives.

...

"It's quaint." Loki responded to Thor's question about how well he liked the bookstore he brought him to. Loki tried to desperately hide his hospital band under his shirt sleeve, but his wrists were so small, the band always slid down to his hand, though, it wasn't loose enough to slide off completely.

Though they both wandered freely around the bookstore, Thor mostly followed Loki. Keeping a close eye on him as he picked out some books he was interested in.

"Would we be able to purchase these, Thor?" Loki asked, after picking out a couple of books that piqued his interest. "You know, I have a lot of free time in the hospital. It wouldn't hurt to allow me a book or two... You know, so I wouldn't be subjugated to reading those horrid, water stained magazines for entertainment."

"Of course, brother." Thor beamed. "Anything you want, it is yours." Thor didn't realize just how much he was spoiling Loki. If his father knew of what he was spending his time here on Midgard doing, he'd surely be livid once more. But that didn't bother Thor, the wrath of his father was worth the love of his brother, however fleeting it may be.

Loki didn't take advantage of Thor's infatuation as Thor first believed Loki would. Instead, Loki just picked a few books from their places on the shelves and flipped through them quickly before deciding on whether or not he truly wanted to own that book. Those that he didn't really need, he put back on the shelf, and those that we truly wanted to keep, he tucked under his arm.

Loki went through plenty of books and the brothers didn't spend much time talking at all, it was mostly just Loki searching through books, quiet as the dead. It made Thor a little uncomfortable. All Thor wanted to do was grab Loki and take him to someplace that was quiet, secret and personal and shower his brother in his affection. He knew, however, Loki would never accept that from him, so he settled for buying Loki some books. He was so thankful that Tony had provided him with Midgardian currency.

It had been about an hour now, and Loki had finally decided on the books he wanted. Thor was very surprised, Loki had narrowed his choices down to two books. One seemed to be about a horse, though, it was called _Black Beauty_. The other was a book on psychology, which, Loki explained, was the science of the human mind. Thor gladly purchased the books for his brother and they found they still had two hours to burn before Loki needed to be returned to the hospital.

"Where else can you take me?" Loki asked. Thor shrugged.

"Where else do you wish to go?"

"... Perhaps we could get some tea? The only tea in the hospital is bland and watery." Loki followed Thor closely as they walked. "I'd do anything for a warm cup of tea that isn't instant."

So Thor asked a civilian where they could find a good cup of tea, the civilian directed them to a nearby coffee shop, which, Loki would also describe as 'quaint'. It was small, not too crowded, with a very pleasant smell of organic coffee beans. There were many choices for refreshments on their menu, anything from cups of hot coffee to cold presses to a vast variety of different teas to hot apple cider. There were also many good looking desserts and sweets next to the counter, though Loki was only interested in a cup of tea.

He ordered his tea and Thor purchased a blueberry muffin. They sat opposite of each other, not saying anything for a while, just staring. Loki slowly sipped his tea, staring at something behind Thor's head as Thor, on the other hand, was inhaling his muffin. Loki could never figure out why Thor always ate as though he were starving.

"Tell me about_ her_." Thor said after finishing the muffin, which, took hardly any time at all.

"Who, Thor?" Loki pretended as though he didn't know.

"_Her_. The girl you met in the hospital."

"You needn't get jealous, Thor. She's married and I have no interest in her beyond a temporary acquaintanceship." Loki smirked as he continued to sip his tea.

"... I just want to hear of what you've learned of her. She is the one who's mind has been broken, yes? I am interested in how she communicates with you." Thor put on his best smile.

"Her name is Bereit. I do not know her age, though, she does appear to be quite young." Loki averted his gaze from Thor and focused on a spot on the wooden floor. "She reminds me a lot of myself in many ways."

Thor didn't need to say anything to urge Loki to keep talking.

"She reminds me of how I used to be... and what I could possibly become."

"Brother, your mind is not lost." Thor reached out to touch Loki's hand that lay still on the table. "You are not the person you have become. You are my brother, Loki. A prince of Asgard, beloved by your family."

"... Of course." Loki spat. He certainly didn't feel loved at all. In fact, he felt rather betrayed by his family. Mostly the Allfather, though. He shook that thought from his head, no use in ruining a rather... almost pleasant afternoon with his brother thinking about his father.

Thor felt something vibrating in his jeans. It made him uncomfortable and startled, had he had Mjolnir he would have been ready to attack whatever it was that was in his pocket, trying to fight its way out. Thor jumped out of his chair and began to frantically reach into his pockets, clawing at whatever it was that was buzzing so loud and vibrating against his skin through the fabric of his jeans. He pulled out the cellphone that Stark had given him.

He stared at the screen, which was now lit up and had words running across it. He assumed, they were messages from Stark. They read:

_**Tony Stark: 11:57am**_

_SHIELD knows about Loki._

_**Tony Stark: 12:01pm**_

_You need to get here NOW!_

_**Tony Stark: 12:03pm**_

_And if you're still out can you pick up a loaf of bread?_

_**Tony Stark: 12:08pm**_

_NVM. Forget the bread, just GET HERE NOW!_

"Loki, I regret that I have to do this, but I'm afraid I have to return you to the hospital now." Thor sighed. Loki looked a little upset, but it only lasted for a moment before it was replaced by Loki's usual facade of apathy.

"But why?" Loki asked.

"I fear for your safety and I must return you now to ensure that you remain safe here on Midgard." Thor responded, " I must also ensure the safety of the people of Midgard."

"Ah, I see..." Loki looked dejected, but he still stood up anyway, throwing away what was left of his tea and following Thor as he led them out of the coffeeshop and back into the empty streets.

...

"You mind telling me what's been happening?" Fury asked. All of the Avengers were present, and all of them looked pretty guilty except for Thor, who stood his ground in defending his brother's wellbeing.

"Loki has escaped Asgard and returned here, only to be captured and brought to a psychiatric hospital."

"... But, but!" Tony jumped in, "Loki is being contained there. Loki wants to get better now and he's apparently been doing very well."

"Ah, I see." Nick said softly, he looked down at the floor for a minute, then back up at Stark and Thor. "So a few green marks on his behavior chart and suddenly he's no longer a threat?"

"My brother is no longer a threat." Thor began. "He currently has no desire to take over this realm."

"Currently. What happens in another week, once he's released? What if he suddenly... Oh, I don't know, regains his need for world domination? What the hell happened to 'Asgardian justice'?" Fury's voice was slowly raising. "And what of those Asgardian puppets that are outside, claiming they need to find you and Loki? I'm not willing to put all of Earth in jeopardy just because your little brother feels the need to change himself. He can do that on Asgard."

"Asgard is different." Thor corrected. "Asgard doesn't appreciate the mind as much as they do here on Midgard, Loki could never find help for his psyche on Asgard, he'd only be cast out and seen as weak."

"That's not my problem." Fury ended it there. "Tell the Asgardians outside where Loki is, have them return him and get your ass back to Asgard before the council gets on my ass as to why I have allowed all of this shit to happen without intervening."

"I cannot. I made a promise to Loki that I would keep him safe."

"Isn't there something you could do, Director?" Natasha spoke up. "To keep the Asgardians away for a little while until Loki is released from the hospital? Can't he stay until then? Can't you make some sort of deal with the Asgardian leader?"

"Maybe..." Bruce began. "Maybe you could tell the Asgardians that you're keeping Loki as a prisoner and he needs the 'okay' before being sent back to Asgard, which could take a week or so?"

"My father is not the type of man to bargain for what he wants..." Thor sighed.

"What are our options?" Fury asked.

"I say, we move Loki to a more secure hospital. Give him maximum security and allow the leader of Asgard to send his people to check on him every so often to give updates back to Asgard, so he knows we're serious. Then once Loki is ready to be released, we let him go."

"Loki has already found a healer that he trusts at Stronecross Center. It would be impossible to move him without him deciding to use his magic to cause trouble as he has in the past."

"Maybe we could have sneak some undercover agents into Stonecross? That way we'll be keeping a close eye on him and we can send updates to Odin about Loki until we tell him that Loki has the okay to leave?"

"Would he be willing to cooperate with us, Thor?" Fury asked.

"I believe my father truly loves Loki, if I return to Asgard to explain this situation to him and that it's in Loki's best interest, perhaps he will understand and then be willing to cooperate."

"I can't believe I'm fucking doing this..." Fury murmured under his breath.

...

"How are you, sweetheart?" Frigga asked Loki as he sat on his bed. She had come to warn him about the guards that Odin had sent. Loki had finally made himself available to talk via holograms and Frigga was taking every chance she could to talk to her son.

"I am managing." Loki said. "How is Odin? He must be absolutely furious of my departure and me having been gone for so long."

"He is just upset, Loki." Frigga reached out to Loki and touched his cheek gently, in a motherly fashion. "He just wants you to come home."

"Oh, of course. So he can punish me as he always does."

"No, Loki. He worries for you, as I do. He just wants what is best for you, Loki. He may not always execute the most well thought out plans, but he has the best intentions." Loki didn't respond. Frigga ran hand through Loki's thick, greasy hair and he smiled softly. "Oh, my dear... I've missed you so much. It pains me to know you're so far away."

"I've missed you as well." Loki admitted. He sighed, reaching to grab the 'hands' of his mother's hologram as she appeared before him. He was disappointed when his hands went through her transparency. She was disappearing.

"I will see you again, soon." She spoke softly, tears filling her eyes. "When you come home, my dear." And then, she was gone.

* * *

Author's Notes:

This has been the longest I've gone on an update for this story. ;(

Partially wasn't my fault, though. I was having technical difficulties.

Anyway.

I don't have very many notes for this chapter. I meant to update with two chapters today, but I'm still working on the next one.

In real life, you will usually just get a pass from the hospital when your doctors feel you are getting close to being discharged. In this story, though, Loki is getting a pass early to get more contact with his brother. Which, would make sense and, provided the patient is in good mind and not in danger of hurting anyone or themselves, would be likely that a doctor would give them a pass for that reason. But usually, in real life, in the hospital they want you to have as little outside contact as possible, but they do encourage contact with close friends and family. So, you know. Whatever. It's a story, I try to make it as realistic as possible, but I also want the characters to grow and it's hard to do that when they're locked up in the hospital with no outside contact. :/

Anyway, thanks for sticking with me, if you've read up to this point! I appreciate it. :)

\- Rawiyah


	8. The Fear

Summary: AU. After escaping imprisonment on Asgard, Loki returns to earth, only to find himself in a different sort of prison... A psychiatric ward.

* * *

Chapter Eight: The Fear

Loki was plagued by horrible nightmares of Thanos that night. They shook him from his sleep and kept him on edge the entire night. He has never really been fearful for his life, not until now, anyway. The fear woke him multiple times and it got to the point where Loki didn't know what would be easier... to stay awake in a dark, hospital room and stare at the ceiling, too afraid to move, or if he should fall back into blissful unconsciousness only to be vigorously woken up by the dreadful fear of The Other and his 'threat'.

Loki eventually decided he should slide out of bed and go to the common room. It was usually pretty dark and no one was typically awake at that time, but in the common room and at the desk there was always a light on. The night staff always stayed around in case a patient couldn't sleep, and the nurse was always available in case someone needed some extra help getting to sleep. She always had a drawer filled with powerful sleep medications for that occasion.

Loki slowly made his way to the kitchen. The lights were dim, but still on and he felt alright knowing he wasn't the only one who wasn't asleep. As he approached the kitchen tables he saw a familiar figure sitting at a table, alone.

It was Bereit, she worn an off-white hospital blanket around her shoulders and she stared at the table blankly. Loki thought about approaching her and saying hello, but it was too late in the night for chivarly and he didn't feel like being polite. He just came to her table and pulled out a chair, sitting across from her.

She didn't seem to register that he'd sat in front of her until he cleared his throat. Even then, she still looked a little dazed.

"L-Loki?" She had returned to herself. She wasn't the person he met the other day. "I th-thought you had been disch-charged."

"I was just out with my brother." He spoke softly, seeing as how it was still late and everyone else was asleep. "What's gotten you up so late?" He asked.

"I h-had another panic attack." She sighed. "I was just given m-my xanax and it always makes me a little dizzy. I couldn't walk b-back to my room, so I'm sitting h-here until it passes."

Loki didn't share with her that he was having nightmares. She didn't need to know and there would be no point in sharing such personal information with a crazy mortal, right? Loki looked around the dark kitchen, watching as the night staff walked by, watching them for a few seconds then walking away to do their nightly checks on everyone's rooms.

Loki and Bereit sat in silence for a while, then someone else approached them...

Pam. The overweight, blonde woman. She approached them slowly, noticing Loki and getting a little nervous. When she noticed he didn't scream at her to go away, she took that as an invitation to sit with them at the table.

"Hey, I didn't know anyone else was awake." She sat and Loki grimaced but she didn't notice. "Usually when I come here everyone's sleep."

Loki snarled at her, trying to be mean, but apparently failing at it.

"Hey there." She said to Loki, but Loki just growled softly in response. "I'm Pam. You know this mania is really kicking my ass. I haven't been able to sleep since I got here last week."

"H-has the sleeping meds helped?" Bereit asked.

"Nah. They just make me feel a little dizzy, then my body is even more awake once the drowsiness wears off after an hour or so." Pam smiled. Loki didn't like her at all. She was too happy, no one was this happy this early in the morning. "You should be going home soon, huh, hun? You've been here for like, ever."

"M-my doctors say I am doing better, b-but they are thinking o-of sending me to a res-sidential treatment center." Bereit sighed. "My husband h-has expressed concern that he doesn't want me to c-come back until I'm n-_normal_."

"That's bullshit, Bereit!" Pam exclaimed, making both Bereit and Loki jump. They heard one of the staff members SHHH them loudly and go bck to what she was doing on the computer at the desk. Pam quieted. "He's just an abusive, controlling asshole. He doesn't want you normal, dear, he wants you quiet."

Bereit lowered her head in shame. She fidgeted with her fingers and spoke almost in a whisper. "H-he has my best interest in mind."

That struck a chord with Loki. Best interest.

"I agree with Pam." Loki spoke without really thinking, he was sort of blinded by his overwhelming amount of hate for Bereit's husband. "He is controlling. He doesn't care about you, he's just trying to control you, make you into his perfect, little, quiet wife who won't say anything against him and he'll punish you whenever you true self shows up." Loki was burning with rage. But he realized, it wasn't for her husband, no, it was for Odin. He felt so much like Bereit. He was stuck with a cruel father that was never proud of him, a father who always took joy in punishing him for his wrongdoings and never praised his good traits.

Loki stood up from the table and stormed away to his room, suddenly very overcome with powerful emotions that he didn't want anyone else to witness. The two women sat, still surprised at Loki's little outburst.

...

"We will scrounge all of the realms until we find him." The Other told Thanos, who was being quiet as he sat on his throne, a rock formation floating in space. "He will be returned to you, for he has not kept his end of the bargain."

"He should have remained in my control." Thanos grumbled, not to anyone in particular, just to himself, loud enough that The Other could hear. "Is he receiving the messages we have sent?"

"The threats we have sent through his sleep? I imagine that he... is not sleeping well these passed few days." The Other purred. "They have been increasing worse as the days move on."

"Good." Thanos grumbled. "We do not need to look for him. He will make himself known on whatever realm he is currently trying to hide."

The Other only nodded, soon their time would come, where they'd have Loki and they'd finish the work they had started.

...

Odin was, at first, very upset. He was upset with Thor for lying to him about not having found Loki. He was upset with Loki for disappointing him so much... and he was upset with Frigga for keeping such important information from him. He wasn't going to give Thor or Loki a second chance if it hadn't been for Frigga. Who persuaded him that this was what would be best for their son, Loki.

"He's probably just doing this to annoy me, Frigga." Odin growled. "That boy was always one to play tricks and annoy others."

"That's just how he is, dear." Frigga murmured as she played with Odin's hair. They were both laying in their bed, Frigga with a book laid next to her as she leaned over on Odin's shoulders. "But he has always treasured your affections. He's only ever wanted to make you proud."

"You think me too harsh?" He asked Frigga, and he silently asked her to be honest.

"Yes. He's wanted nothing more than to please you, and yet you've always favored Thor."

Odin chuckled, "Just as you have always favored Loki."

"I've loved both of my sons equally..." Frigga purred softly in Odin's ear and she massaged his neck. "Though, Thor was never interested in magic." She hummed softly.

"Thor was everything I ever wanted in a son.." Odin admitted. "I never meant to be hard on Loki. Why he could be more like his brother?"

"Dear, you can't suffocate Loki by expecting him to be something he's not..."

Odin pondered it for a while. Raising Loki was a lot harder than he'd first expected it to be. He had assumed that Loki would easily adapt to Asgardian culture. That Loki would be strong, despite his size for a giant, that Loki would excel in battle and in strength. He was mistaken, as Loki had chosen to follow in his mother's footsteps and become trained in the art of magic. He didn't mean to try to change Loki, he just wanted what he felt would be the best thing for Loki. He wasn't a patient man, when he saw that Loki wasn't adapting right away, when he saw that Loki was disobeying him and making a fool out of Odin by trying to rule Midgard, attempting to kill his favored son and killing many innocent Midgardians, he felt he had no choice but to give up on Loki.

"Loki is a good boy." Frigga sighed. "He just needs the support of a father more than anything."

Odin thought about it, leaning back against the headboard of the bed as he continued to allow Frigga to massage his neck and run her fingers through his hair.

Ooh, how he hated to give in to Frigga so easily. But when she spoke, she made sense, and Odin had no choice but to listen to what she was saying, even if it went against what he would have done.

...

Loki found himself cooped up in his room most of the day, just as he'd been when he first came to the hospital. He didn't want to talk to anyone, didn't want to see anyone and he was not... WAS NOT looking forward to Thor's visit that day. He didn't even bother to clean himself up. He just laid in bed, on his stomach, staring at the rows of shelves built into the wall where he kept the books that Thor had bought for him. Norns, he wanted to read them, he'd started to earlier, but he just couldn't get his mind off the outburst he'd had with Bereit and Pam. Not a good first impression... But hell, he was in a hospital, who the hell makes a good impression when you're locked up in a crazy bin?

Loki rolled over and stared at the ceiling... There was a soft tapping at his door and he moaned in response. The door slowly opened and a morning staff member poked their head into his room.

"Loki...?" The woman said. It was a female, short, tan skin, brown hair. He'd seen her before on other days. "Loki, your doctor-"

"Wants to see me..." Loki finished for her.

"No, actually... Your doctor does want to see you, but I came to tell you that Dr. Ackerman is hosting a group therapy session. He'd like for you to join."

Loki groaned. He didn't feel like being bothered by a group therapy session, he never went to the groups at all, in fact, Loki preferred to just talk with Dr. Braun when things came up that he needed to talk about. He debated with himself for a few minutes after the staff member had slowly shrunk back from where she had her head in the doorway and she closed the door. He debated on whether or not he should attend the therapy session. There'd be no harm in going, he could just sit there and listen to what everyone else had to say... no one would force him to give input. Or he could just sit in his room and think about all the ways that Thanos could torture him. And he could think about how Odin wouldn't even care.

No, it would be better to get his mind off Odin and Thanos. He decided on attending the session.

He slid off the bed in his usual, lazy, uncoordinated fashion and pulled himself to his feet, slowly making his way to the door and down the long, empty hallway. He saw immediately that everyone was gathered in the meeting room, which was just across the kitchen. The room was very bright, as it had a lot of natural light streaming in from the oversized windows. There was a long table with at least seven or eight chairs, all full except for two, one for Dr. Ackerman, who was currently standing in front of a white board and one that was for Loki.

"Pleased to have you join us, Loki." Dr. Ackerman smiled. Loki didn't respond, but instead took his seat right away and stared at the table. The other patients were quiet, as they were all staring at what Dr. Ackerman was writing on the whiteboard. Loki heard the gentle squeaks of the marker against the smooth surface of the whiteboard and grimaced. It was a noise he was not used to and definitely not fond of. "Our topic today... Abuse." Dr. Ackerman said as he finished writing the word on the whiteboard. "Now, I know this is a sore topic for many of you... But it's a very important one. You won't stay here forever, soon you'll need to go out and face the real world again and you'll need to be safe when you're out there."

"I'm safe anywhere I go." The convict, James said as a matter-of-fact-ly. "Anyone messes with me, if anyone so much as looks at me the wrong way, I'll drop them." The other patients didn't look threatened and Loki almost laughed at how weak the man truly sounded. Loki knew what it was like to kill people without remorse, this man obviously didn't kill as many as he would claim.

"If you don't feel like this topic applies to you, you're free to go." Dr. Ackerman responded, and James stood up and left the room, mumbling something about 'goddamn doctors who think they know everything'. Loki was tempted to stand up and leave too, but he felt glued to the chair. His legs felt like weights and he really didn't feel like walking anywhere.

"I won't ask any of you to tell me about any abuse you've experienced in the past..." Dr. Ackerman said, kind of a disclaimer, Loki would guess. "But we're just going to talk about how to recognize an abuser and what to do in abusive situations."

For the most part, Loki tuned out the session. He listened a little when the other patients shared what they wanted of their stories and Loki just sighed. Hearing of all of their abuse and sad history just made Loki feel... blank. He didn't feel anything at all for these people, not remorse, not pity. But it did bring up a lot of memories for him... Most clearly the memory of Sleipnir's sire, Svaðilfari. It wasn't the actual act of rape that caused him such grief, it was the feelings of incredible shame that followed. The way his father ignored him and pretended as though nothing had ever happened to Loki, the way his brother teased him after Sleipnir was born, and the way Frigga, oh Frigga... the sadness in her eyes as she heard the news.

It got to the point where Loki couldn't handle hearing anymore stories of shame, guilt and sadness. He stood from the table and left the room, having not said a single word the entire session.

When he made it back to his room, he scrambled around the shelves, looking for a piece of paper he could write on and something to write with. He finally had to settle for asking one of the staff members for a pencil, which, they gave but had required he return it before the sun went down.

Loki raced back to his room with the pencil and the sheet of paper in his hands. He decided on sitting on the floor, where it would be easier to write, and he began to write a letter to Thor... He never got to explain to Thor what had truly happened between Svaðilfari and himself. He told Thor that he loved him, told Thor he trusted him... Now it was time to put his trust to the test. So, he started writing about Svaðilfari.

...

Thor made his way to the hospital with Bruce. The others either didn't want to come along, or had better things to do with their time. Thor didn't mind, he'd go alone if he had to, but it was always nice to have the company of someone else on these visits. Thor didn't want to carry Loki's burden by himself, but he loved Loki with such an undying love, he'd carry any burden of Loki's on his own if he had no other option.

Thor was prepared to give Loki a declaration of love that day. He was prepared to tell Loki just how much he loved him and how far he was willing to go to protect his baby brother. He wasn't ashamed and didn't care what Bruce had to say about it.

He and Bruce were walking up the steps that led to the hospital doors, when they were both interrupted by familiar faces...

It was the Asgardian warriors who Odin had sent to collect Thor and Loki. They looked a little frantic and Thor growled at them, prepared to fight for Loki's freedom if he had to. Bruce, on the other hand, looked a little nervous. He didn't want 'the other guy' to suddenly come out and destroy a hospital filled with innocent, sick people. That would stain his conscious so much he'd never be able to live with himself after something like that...

"I thought I had already settled this matter with the Allfather?!" Thor roared. "Loki is NOT to be taken back to Asgard this day!"

"We have not come for Loki." One of the guards said. "We have come for you..."

"Me?" Thor lowered his fists and stood tall once more.

"Asgard is under attack." Another guard spoke up. "The Queen has sent us to fetch you."

Thor didn't need any more persuasion. He gladly reached out for Mjolnir, told Bruce to step back, and waited as Heimdall opened the Bifrost and in a flash of colorful lights... Thor and the guards were gone.

...

Loki paced down the hallway, looking at his feet, then to the double doors where Thor usually comes in, then back at his feet. He was trying to convince himself that Thor was alright. Thor never missed a visit, not without first calling Loki and telling him he'd be late, or he'd not visit that day... Something wasn't right, but Loki continued to pace. He held the letter he'd written to Thor tightly in his hands that he held behind his back as he paced.

Loki's head snapped up so quickly he thought he should have strained something, but soon enough, as Loki expected, the double doors opened and a staff member was escorting... not Thor... through the hallway. Loki was confused, Thor always showed up at this time, no earlier, no later. Always. Then Loki recognized the face of Bruce Banner.

Loki tensed a little and the staff member, a man this time, Asian with a bushy of thick, curly hair, led Bruce towards Loki. The staff member began to explain to Loki that Thor wasn't going to be coming, but Bruce interrupted him and told Loki what had happened...

"They said there was war on Asgard. I'm sorry, Loki. Thor had to leave."

"War?!" Loki was in shock. "No one has declared war on Asgard for centuries!" Loki clutched at the letter he'd written. "Who would declare war on..." He thought about it carefully. Asgard had no enemies as of yet. Thor, especially had no enemies... Odin, on the other hand, maybe... but no one in their right mind would think to attack Odin while he's at full strength.

"Are you okay, Loki?" Bruce asked. Loki was starting to panic now, trying to figure out who'd attack Asgard. His mind reeled when the only explanation he could come up with shook him to the core...

"Thanos." He whispered.

* * *

Author's Notes:

Sorry this chapter is awful, and sorry it's so short! I was going to add more, but I couldn't really do that without this chapter being too long and I would like to continue my thoughts in the next chapter instead of making this chapter have a lot of different things going on at once... which, this chapter sort of already did. Dx

Anyway. If you find any mistakes, please let me know so I can fix them, thanks! Also, if there's anything you think I'm missing in this story, or anything that doesn't make sense, please ask me about it and I'll try to add more stuff to the story to make it make sense or make it explain better.

Thanks.

\- Rawiyah


	9. The Pursuit

Summary: AU. After escaping imprisonment on Asgard, Loki returns to earth, only to find himself in a different sort of prison... A psychiatric ward.

* * *

**Chapter Nine: The Pursuit**

Loki felt sick. He wanted to vomit... This all had to be some sort of coincidence... Thanos wouldn't really... No, no he would. There was no use in pretending and using wishful thinking. Loki knew Thanos would come after him sooner or later. Loki made a deal with him, he, who gave Loki the scepter. He, who showed Loki the power of the Tesseract. Loki couldn't stay hidden in the false safety of the Midgardian hospital. No, Loki would have no choice but to venture out. If for no reason, at least to save his mother. (And maybe his brother too.)

"Thor didn't tell you more?" He asked the others. The other Avengers shook their heads.

"Thor did mention that you said Thanos might be after you." Steve said as more of an afterthought. Bruce jumped in after him,

"But we all sort of assumed that this... Thanos guy would just come for you directly. Maybe blow up our planet or something while doing it. We never would have thought he'd come after Asgard."

"Thanos only wants me. He is trying to get me to come to him by attacking the ones I love." Loki sighed, feeling so helpless. Even if he did arrive in Asgard, he'd be of no help. It's been proven to him over and over that he isn't strong enough to fight off Thor, let alone fight off an entire army of Thanos'. "He knows Midgard means nothing to me, there's no point in attacking here."

Everyone went silent for a little while. Loki was feeling uncomfortable.

"To be honest, Loki..." Natasha began. "We're only interested in helping Thor." Everyone looked at her from where they stood in Loki's hospital room. All except Loki, who sat on his bed, staring at the wall. "He wanted to protect you, so that's what we'll do... For now, anyway. You'd better hope that he isn't in any real danger. Or we'll have S.H.I.E.L.D. come and get you and we'll _protect_ you from there." Loki could tell that Natasha was very upset with him, that she secretly blamed him for all that was happening to her friend. He didn't blame her, he'd be angry with himself too.

She turned and walked out of the room, leaving Loki alone with the other Avengers as they stood awkwardly crowded in Loki's small hospital room. No one dared to stare at Loki, and even if they did, they knew the God wouldn't even care. He was too worried about his brother to notice much.

"Thor will be alright, Loki." Steve said as he reached out to put a hand on Loki's shoulder. Loki jerked away from him quickly before Steve's hand could touch the fabric of his shirt. Steve let out a sigh. "If you really are being hunted, we'll do what we can to keep our promise to Thor."

The others walked out of the room silently, slowly following Natasha, but Steve lingered. He only looked at Loki sadly for a few minutes, seeing how scared Loki looked was heartbreaking for him. He could almost say he missed seeing Loki when he still had that spark of rebellion in his eyes. When Loki turned his body away from him and lowered his head into his hands, Steve took his leave.

...

Loki never told Bereit about his encounter with her other personality, Berry. He felt it was not his place to break the news to her that she was fractured. And besides, he'd rather just continue talking as though nothing like that had ever happened.

"E-everyone is w-wondering why the Avengers came here." Bereit said. "S-so you really are the one from New York!"

Loki huffed. He shouldn't be surprised that it would take the Avengers coming to the hospital and telling everyone that he was, in fact, Loki of Asgard in order to prove that he really was who he said he was. He knew he shouldn't be, but he was, a little, anyway. Bereit was beginning to annoy him now. Everyone was beginning to annoy him. He felt so raw. Like anything that rubbed him, everything that touched him gave him pain.

He needed to be with Thor, needed to protect him, or at least fight alongside his brother. He could care less about the future of Asgard, as long as his mo- Frigga was safe and Thor was... not dead.

"Y-you're not going to kill me..." Bereit began. "R-right? I mean, I-I thought you... you maybe l-liked me?"

"Liked you?!" Loki laughed. "Please... I could _never_ like you. I could never _like_ any mortal!" Loki didn't even think before he spoke, didn't realize he was taking his anger for himself out on Bereit. "You're all beneath me, I would never stoop so low as to actually emit feelings for one of you. You're pathetic. Ha, _liked_ you. You have a damn husband, and I see now why he beats you so... You're so half-witted, he probably told you to do something and no matter how many times he's alliterated to you, you still did not get it. It's understandable now. I can not even believe I've wasted so much of my time talking to someone so lacking in intelligence." Loki stood up still talking, getting more and more upset with each word that fell from his lips and he felt an odd sense of pride rise up in his chest as he saw the terrified look in Bereit's face.

"To answer your question... I might. I might kill you, in fact, I probably will. Given the chance, I'd love to make you writhe and scream in pain and suffering." He huffed and nearly got so angry that he almost reached out and grabbed the round edge of the table and flipped it over, but he stopped himself before doing so. He wasn't going to be like Thor, though it was obvious, he was spending too much time with the Thunderer.

Loki did something he thought he'd never do for a while. He used his magic to completely disappear.

...

Loki did not go far. He sat outside of the church where he was first taken to the hospital. He wouldn't be surprised if no one from the hospital came to find him. It probably wasn't the first time someone escaped, but he had hoped in the back of his mind that the mortals' concern for his well being was real and that they'd send someone to come find him... Just to prove they really did care. Not that it mattered what they did. No, but deep down, Loki truly wanted to know that someone cared for him.

He wore his full armor and his helm. He felt as though he'd been met by a long lost friend, one he hadn't seen for ages and it felt good to look like himself again. Though, he was certain by now, Heimdall would be aware of his location. He finally lifted the mask, but he felt a little cowardly by doing it now, knowing that Heimdall was probably busied with fighting off the army that Thanos had sent to Asgard.

Loki wasn't the type to cry, so he made sure that his tears didn't fall. He was scared at the thought of losing Frigga. She had loved him so much and showered him with kindness and praise. Though, he hated to admit it, he also had some feelings for Odin, though he wasn't too sure what they were, yet. He let his head drop to rest on his arms as they were crossed over his legs as he sat on the steps of the church.

It was late now, no one was around and it was the scary, dark, broken side of Detroit. Loki groaned. The Avengers would be after him soon once they learn he ran away from the hospital...

"Damn." He huffed. A man walked by, noticing the strange way Loki was dressed, the man stopped for a moment, stared, then went on his way. Loki felt terrible. It was as if the man saw nothing worth talking about in Loki, the man didn't even appear to recognize him from New York. It was as if Loki had been wiped from everyone's memory... All but the Avengers... and Bereit's. He still didn't feel bad for the way he bugged out at Bereit. But her face, the terror in her eyes was something he wasn't going to forget for a while.

Loki stood, then decided to make his way to Stark's newest tower in Detroit. He needed to do something about Thanos and do something to protect the ones he loved...

...

"How were you able to get here the first time without the Bifrost?" Tony asked. It was more of a snide comment, though, as if to poke fun at Loki for not being able to figure out a way back to Asgard. "Wasn't it through some sort of secret loophole in the time-space continuum?"

Loki remained silent for a moment, he didn't need to respond to Stark, how he got there didn't matter, as now he only needed to find a way to get back.

"Where is Jane Foster?" He asked.

"Jane...?" Steve asked.

"Last I heard," Bruce cut in. "She was moved to Norway after Thor came to Earth for the first time. S.H.I.E.L.D. moved her for her safety, so they're probably moving her again as we speak."

"Is there any way for us to contact her?"

"I can see if we can get S.H.I.E.L.D. to get a hold of her. Anything in particular you want to say to her?" Bruce asked.

"Ask if she's able to come here. Tell her that Thor is in trouble."

"Will do."

"Okay, you little creep." Tony growled. He came closer to Loki, but Loki pretended not to notice. "What are you planning on doing? We're trying to keep our promise to Thor, don't go off and do something stupid and ruin the trust bond we have with your brother!"

"I'm not planning on **dying**, if that's what you're trying to ask." Loki snarled.

The two stared each other down for a couple of minutes. Natasha's voice interrupted their staring contest, however, so there was no winner. (But perhaps they'd both say that it was a tie.)

"We would like to know your plan, Loki. We get it, you're not going to die. But what exactly are you planning to do now that you know Thor's in danger? We weren't expecting this from you..." Natasha began to trail off a little bit. "You're so different from last time." She mumbled under her breath. The other Avengers agreed silently, leaving Loki to feel the need to defend himself.

However, Loki chose to remain silent. He didn't need to prove anything to anyone. Once he arrived back on Asgard and was able to save Frigga, maybe Odin would change his mind about Loki's punishment and allow Loki to remain where he used to be in Asgard. The rightful prince.

"I plan to return to Asgard."

"Why?" Tony shrugged, looking at Loki with snark on his face. "What has Asgard ever done for you? First you want to take over Asgard for yourself, then you come here and try to take over Earth and now Asgard has disowned you... Why would you want to go back? You know you're just walking to your own death. Thanos is doing this to get you, why give him the satisfaction of having his plan work?"

"I need to be there... For her." And Loki left the room without another word. The other Avengers were confused, but none of them were brave enough to question who _she_ was.

...

When Thor arrived on Asgard, there was great battle. Many unrecognizable creatures were fighting and there were screams of battle that reigned across the Nine Realms. Thor swung Mjnolir, ready to fight anything that came his way, but first, he must see if Odin and Frigga are alright.

He flew to them, high above the ground where blood was being shed on Asgardian soil. Thor didn't dare look down, lest he get too consumed by anger and pride that he forgets what his purpose was and fights alongside his fellow Aesir. He tried to fly a little faster, hoping to reach his mother and father in time, before anything bad happens to them.

As he approached the balcony of their room, he could hear sounds of battle growing louder and louder in his ear. He landed on the balcony, breaking the golden floors with his weight. There was, in fact, no battle occurring in his parents' room. There was only sounds of struggle and pain.

Thor saw Odin, struggling to his feet with a line of blood sliding down the side of his face where his eye patch was plastered to his face.

"Father!" Thor bellowed and he ran to Odin's side. Odin, however, was not as pleased to see Thor as he had thought.

"They've taken Frigga." Odin gasped. Thor started to help his father to his feet, but Odin shoved him away. "Find her, Thor!" He hissed.

Thor did not need to be told twice, he took off running. He had no idea where they'd taken her, however, and he soon realized that once he found he'd been running in circles. A fallen guard caught his attention, the man had been fatally wounded and was lying on the floor, slowly writhing in pain. He was moaning loudly and Thor decided to get information from him.

"Sir..." Thor said as he leaned over the man, the guard was still in pain and blood was pooling beneath him. "Sir, can you speak?"

The guard only nodded, it must have been too painful to speak. It made Thor feel bad for needing information, but he needed to find his mother and he couldn't sit back and watch as Asgard was being torn apart by an army he had no familiarity with. Thor swallowed a lump in his throat and spoke again.

"What happened?"

The man began to cough harshly, blood coming from his mouth and staining his beard. He sputtered a minute as the blood kept coming, then the fit subsided and he began to speak...

"These... creatures." The man winced and Thor pulled in closer. "They claim to work... uhn.. for T-Thanos. They say they are... looking..." The man's voice became weak and Thor's eyes widened for a moment as he slowly watched the man's life fade in front of him. "... looking for..." The man's eyes rolled to the back of his head and he became silent.

Thor was used to death. Or, he should have been anyway. He'd constantly battled with ferocious creatures in the past, yet, this was the first time he'd seen one of his own die in front of him. It was scary to think about. Thor stood, he still didn't know where they had taken Frigga, but he now knew they were trying to draw Loki out.

Thor raced to the place where he'd guess they'd taken Frigga... The deepest, darkest part of the dungeon, where Loki's cell had been. From what Loki has told him of Thanos, he'd assume this... _creature_ would want Frigga to suffer as she dies and what better place to do so, than Loki's cell?

When Thor had arrived at Loki's cell, he saw right away, a creature he was not familiar with, one wearing a cloak of a mysterious shade of blue that matched the blue shade of his skin. He was humanoid, and as he smiled Thor snarled at the deep, red shade of his teeth. This must've been The Other that Loki had talked about.

Thor gripped Mjolnir tightly, took a defensive stance and spoke,

"Let her go!"

"I am not afraid of you, Asgardian." The Other spat and he raised a six-fingered hand to Thor. "I do not plan on killing her."

Thor could see the point of something seemingly sharp poking out from behind Frigga's back where The Other's hand was. He was holding something and Thor did not trust that he would not harm Frigga.

He swung Mjolnir, then let out a cry as he charged towards The Other and Frigga...

...

Loki can sense the battle raging on Asgard. He is not afraid of battle, however, he is afraid of Thanos and being captured. He knows it's not wise to return to Asgard, but he must ensure the safety of his mother. Loki could not live with himself if he knew something awful happened to her because of his own foolish mistakes.

He'd been making a lot of those lately... foolish mistakes. He felt worry rub at the walls of his stomach, Thor was in danger and it was his fault. Thor was in real, actual danger. This wasn't something that Thor could just swing his hammer and everyone and everything would be dead, no, this was real danger. He couldn't bear the idea of losing Thor. Fortunately, he wasn't the only one.

"_Where's Thor?_" Jane's voice sounded over the intercom. She sounded worried, almost as worried as Loki was, but Loki, unlike Jane, refused to let his emotions show.

"Thor is on Asgard." Bruce filled in.

"_Is he safe?_"

"No." Loki glanced at the intercom on Tony's desk, still surprised at how the technology worked on Midgard. "He is fighting off a possible threat to Midgard."

"_Who is this?_"

"It's Lok-!" Loki nearly yelled into the intercom, but Tony grabbed him and yanked him away from it while Bruce hurriedly tried to cover for Loki's outburst.

"It's a friend of Thor's." He glared at Loki, who was calming down enough that he could continue talking. Though, Loki did not like to be known as 'a friend of Thor's'. If anything, he'd prefer to be known as his brother. "We need you to come here, we're trying to figure out a way to help Thor and no one knows the wormholes to Asgard better than you."

There was a pause. Loki sucked in a deep breath and held it for a couple of seconds as the pause got longer, it stretched for about a minute and a half until they all heard,

"I'll be there."

And then they all released their breaths and made sighs of relief.

* * *

Author's Notes:

Sorry this took so long to get out! I got a bit of a block for a couple of days. It's been a long while since I've written a story and actually stuck with it for so long! And so fast!

I had to figure out a direction I wanted this story to go. I use an inflammatory writ sort of style, where I just write whatever comes to my head at that moment, I don't plan these stories in advance, so I finally sat down and wrote out each chapter summary for me to write around so I can, (hopefully!) write these a little faster and get them out faster without sitting there at the computer and staring at the screen for twenty minutes not knowing what I want to do next. LOL.

In the next chapter Jane and Loki find a way to get Loki back to Asgard, however, Loki changes his mind about leaving when he receives news from Asgard. Good news, bad news, you decide. There will be a little more Odin involved and there will definitely be some interaction between Loki and Odin, there will be some Thanos/The Other also.

Sorry this chapter was short, I plan to write more for the next chapter.

Thanks for reading!

\- Rawiyah


	10. The Call

Summary: AU. After escaping imprisonment on Asgard, Loki returns to earth, only to find himself in a different sort of prison... A psychiatric ward.

* * *

**Chapter 10: The Call**

Loki saw Jane for the first time and he was not impressed. Knowing Thor, he'd thought that Jane would be the pinacle of beauty. She was not. He thought she'd be tall, she was not. He thought she'd be blonde. She was not. She was nothing like Loki had expected, and that made Loki burn with jealousy for a moment that this... this _waif_ had Thor's affections.

Jane met the other Avengers, they all smiled and introduced themselves, pleasantly enough, as though this was just another social call and not an urgent matter of possible life or death for Earth and all it's inhabitants. Loki scoffed at their greetings and avoided eye contact with Jane until she had asked for his name. Even then, Loki did not want to answer her.

"I am Loki." He said finally, in response to Jane's query. "I am Thor's brother."

He watched carefully as Jane's eyes filled with a sudden heat and she looked at the Avengers then back at Loki.

"So... so you're the guy that tried to kill us?" She looked at the other Avengers for an explanation, though she wasn't given one.

"You weren't worth my time." Loki huffed, and as he turned away he mumbled, "I was trying to kill Thor."

Jane pretended not to hear him, as the Avengers didn't seem to really care either way. They led her into the building where Stark had placed his headquarters in Detroit. Tony Stark led them up the stairs and into a laboratory of sorts that had many different pieces of equipment that was completely foreign to Loki. Despite Asgard being light years ahead of Earth, technology wise, this stuff seemed to strange and different it made Loki feel a little less inteligent not knowing what all of those things did, or what their purpose was.

They stood awkwardly in the lab, looking at each other before Tony explained,

"We're trying to find... I dunno what you'd call it, what? A wormhole?" He looked at Bruce, who nodded. "Yeah, well, basically, we're trying to find a way to Asgard. Loki mentioned this... Bifrost thing that the Asgardians use to travel around from planet to planet, but he found some other way of getting here without it and now we need to find a way to get back to Asgard."

Jane chuckled. "You're asking me to perform magic."

No one laughed, not that she was expecting anyone to. It was more of a statement than a joke. She tugged at the equipment she had brought with her, they looked pretty scientific to the others, but to Loki it looked like a bunch of pieces of scrap metal, lazily glued together to create some sort of Midgardian monstrosity.

"I need to go outside with this stuff." She said, "Bruce, maybe you could help me?"

He nodded and they all scurried to the roof as quickly as possible and watched as Bruce and Jane began to "set up" her equipment...

She went on to explain something very "scientific" to them, something that completely went over Steve, Natasha and Loki's head. Though, Loki would never admit that. He couldn't figure out anything that the Midgardian was trying to say... None of it made sense as it was all big, complicated words that had no equivalent on Asgard. He couldn't even make a guess as what she was saying. When it boiled down to it, Jane told them, she wasn't sure if she could find a way to open a wormhole to Asgard.

Loki cursed himself for getting his hopes up. He got even more upset that he'd actually believed, even though it was just for a moment, that a mortal could figure out a way to get to Asgard without the use of Asgardian magic...

...

Loki, Natasha, Steve, Clint and Tony had all migrated indoors while Bruce and Jane stayed outside, on the roof. It was nearing nighttime now and Loki was feeling very anxious that he was stuck on Midgard with no way of helping Thor or Frigga. He paced back and forth in the kitchen area of the building where Tony and Steve were sitting at the counter, both drinking cold beers and talking a little about their predicament.

Loki was staring at his feet as he walked, feeling not too powerful at this point in time, when a bright light suddenly filled the small room and was gone in an instant. Everyone looked around, confused and soon Loki, Tony and Steve were joined by Clint and Natasha.

"What the hell just happened?" Clint asked as he held onto Natasha protectively. Loki smirked.

"Someone has arrived from the Bifrost." Loki purred and he grew a little excited, hoping that it was Thor coming to tell him that everyone was fine. Frigga was safe and Odin... well, Odin was still Odin. He almost took off running to the nearest exit that led to the rooftop, but he calmed himself enough to settle for his regular paced saunter. The door to the exit opened before he could reach it and he was met with an unfamiliar Asgardian face.

Another guard. Oh well, this one could still bring good news. Or so Loki hoped, anyway. Perhaps Thor decided to remain on Asgard and he sent this guard to Loki to inform him of his victory? Or perhaps Odin had sent this guard to inform Loki that he'd forever be stuck on Midgard, unless he could find a way out, of course. Loki wouldn't have minded exile on Midgard, so long as he could later control the people and terrorize them. He lived on mischief and chaos.

What came out of this guard's mouth was unexpected.

"My prince." The guard said. That alone had surprised Loki. No one reffered to him as their 'prince' anymore, not since he'd been sentenced to life in prison on Asgard. He'd been reduced to a class less than dirt. "Odin has sent me to inform you that Asgard was victorious."

Loki smiled a little, relieved that Thor and Frigga were okay.

"However," The guard continued. "We have lost Prince Thor, and The Queen."

"What?!" Loki screeched. LOST THEM!? "They are... dead?" Loki felt as though he'd been pierced in the heart with one of Clint's arrows. He felt like he'd been pierced a hundred times over with flaming arrows that burned as they melted straight through his flesh.

"We do not know. They have been taken during battle. The Allfather demands your return to Asgard immediately."

This was all so much to think about for Loki. Loki was torn between wanting to leave to find out what happened to Thor, but at the same time, Loki did not want to abide by The Allfather's bidding. He decided on going with the latter, he was more concerned with defying the wishes of the Allfather than he was with finding Thor and Frigga. Thor was a big boy, he could handle himself and he trusted that Thor could handle protecting Frigga.

"Tell the Allfather that I am going to remain on Midgard."

"B-but My Prince... Tho-"

"Tell The Allfather that I have no wish to return to Asgard." Loki turned away from the guard. He thought about it for a while and came to the conclusion that there'd be no point in returning to Asgard now. Thor and Frigga were not there, and there'd be no point in going to comfort the Allfather. He wasn't some lap dog to be summoned whenever his owner needed him. "He can find his _precious _son and his Queen on his own."

The guard nodded slowly. "Yes, my Prince." He turned the other way and signaled for Heimdall to open the Bifrost. Within moments, he was gone.

"Loki..." Natasha began. "Are you sure this is smart? Thor could be in serious danger..."

"It doesn't matter what danger Thor could be in. He's of no concern to me now." Loki sighed and he turned around and disappeared from the building, leaving the Avengers to gawk at each other in awkward silence.

...

"Where is this place...?" Thor mumbled to himself as the cover over his eyes was lifted. He saw, again, that strange creature with the blue skin, six fingers and blood red teeth, standing over him. Thor looked to his side, seeing his mother beside him, looking tired, yet very, very angry. The cover over her eyes were also removed and both she and Thor were heavily shackled and bound to stakes in the ground.

Around them it was dark, there was hardly any light and they were standing on some sort of floating rock in the middle of space. Above them there was another large, floating space rock of some sort. Nothing special, not to them, anyway.

"Where are we?!" Thor yelled at The Other, but The Other did not respond. Instead he turned away from both Thor and Frigga. The rock above them had also begun to turn and it revealed someone sitting down, on some sort of rocky, throne. A rather large, bulky man, with a wide jaw and purple-ish skin. The man chuckled.

"You're in the Sanctuary." He smiled. Thor didn't question anything else the man said, but Frigga was glaring at Thor as if to tell him to be quiet. Thor lowered his head, choosing to following Frigga's facial instructions to keep his mouth shut. "Asgardian, you have meddled into business that is not your own." The Mad Titan spoke. "For this, you will be punished."

Thor knew it was Thanos at that point. The business he was talking about was what happened between him and Loki. Thor struggled against his confines and he looked at Frigga desperately, hoping she'd be able to get them out using her magic or something. He was disappointed when all he could see in his mother's face was sadness. He struggled even more against the bindings as The Other approached him with something in his hand. Thor couldn't quite make out what it was, as it shone so brightly with a magnificent light that it almost blinded Thor.

The Other approached Thor with it very painfully slowly. Once The Other was only a few feet away, Thor closed his eyes tightly as the light shining in his face was too bright for his eyes to handle. He expected there to be some sort of blow, something hitting his face, something stabbing him, anything, really! But there was nothing... Nothing except for a strange feeling in the pit of his stomach and something he felt in his head. Almost as if his soul was being sucked out of his body...

It was then, that Thor lost consciousness. But, not really.

...

Loki wandered the streets for a while, still upset over The Allfather 'demanding' him to return to Asgard. His only reasons for returning were no longer there, and he had no idea where Thanos could have taken them. He wasn't going to risk his life because The Allfather couldn't live up to his reputation. No, Loki was going to stay on Midgard for a while... He'd rather stay on Midgard and live a rather sub par, boring life, than return to Asgard to once again be Odin's little, Jotun pet.

It was night time once more and the streets were completely empty. There was very little light, except for those strange street lights that flickered every now and then. It seemed almost eerie to place seemed completely abandoned. The only life around him were the skunks that scurried around in the bushes a few feet away from the sidewalk.

Loki sulked, feeling a little sorry for himself. He blamed himself for Frigga's endangerment. Had he not gotten involved with Thanos, none of this would have happened. He stopped at an abandoned building of some sort... It looked dreadful, walls cracked, paint chipping, windows broken and the door... what door? He thought about going inside for a while, just to rest his troubled mind and take a break from the world moving on around him. His thoughts were interrupted however when he saw flashing, red and blue police lights far off in the distance.

Loki sighed, they were probably coming for him. After all, he did,_ technically_, escape from the hospital, and he wasn't_ technically _supposed to leave. He figured after they'd seen all that he was capable of doing, though, that they'd leave him alone. Obviously these mortals weren't as smart as he had thought they were. He'd given them way too much credit. But at the same time, it was what he wanted. He wanted someone to care enough to come looking for him. He desperately wanted to believe that Dr. Braun and his treatment team really, truly did care for his well being... and with this, they have proven themselves to be true to their word.

Loki debated on whether or not he should go with the police peacefully and return to the hospital, or if he should have some fun and run away. He wanted to have fun, cause some mischief like he used to, but the fun was drained out of him. He couldn't have fun knowing Frigga was out there, possibly in danger and it was **his fault**. No, returning to the hospital seemed like the most fitting thing to do at this point in time.

The squad cars came closer, the lights still flashing brightly in Loki's eyes. Loki, however, did not move, not even as the police stepped out of the cars and asked, in falsely calm voices, that Loki return to the hospital with them. Loki did not even put up a front to pretend as though he'd run. He simply put up his hands in surrender and allowed the officer to gently push him into the back of the car.

...

Odin roared as he pounded his fist on the arm of his throne. The guard he'd sent to Midgard to retrieve Loki had returned with the bad news that Loki would not come back to Asgard.

"That little fool!" Odin growled. "Does he not see that I'm giving him another chance?!"

The guard looked a little nervous, but did not speak.

"He will be the downfall of this family!" Odin lifted his fist and slammed it back onto the arm of his chair as he yelled. He brought his hand up to massage his temple with the pads of his fingers... He remembered Frigga's words so clearly in his mind...

_"You __will__ make amends with him!"_

Odin roared in frustration once more... How could he fix what was broken between him and Loki if Loki wasn't willing to allow him to fix it?! Loki was being so stubborn as usual. Odin knew he got that from Frigga. But now, with Frigga and Thor gone, he was alone. Sure, Odin can use magic, he was one of the most powerful magicians in all of the Nine Realms, but Loki's superior intellect would do wonders if they could settle their differences and come together. It was the only way of finding Thor and Frigga.

Odin was growing more frustrated with each thought that passed through his mind... Was Loki truly that heartless that he'd just leave his own brother and mother out in the wilderness of space to possibly die? Odin gritted his teeth in anger.

"Perhaps he truly is just a Jotun-"

"Allfather!" A voice rang out, it was another guard, quickly approaching Odin and the other guard standing in front of the throne. "Allfather, Heimdall says he sees Thor."

"Where?!" Odin demanded.

"On Midgard, My Lord."

...

The Avengers were dumbfounded. Loki wouldn't return to Asgard to help his father find his mother and brother. If that wasn't evil, they didn't know what was. Still, they wanted to keep their promise to Thor until Loki proved that they couldn't otherwise do so.

"You think there's a bigger picture to all this?" Tony asked. The Avengers had mixed reactions. Steve shrugged while Natasha and Clint remained silent. Bruce, on the other hand, had some mixture of a nod and a shaking of his head.

"Why would Loki refuse to go back to Asgard?" Bruce wondered aloud. "There's nothing for him here."

"With Thor out of the picture, Loki can easily take over Earth without having to worry about Big Brother coming to stop him." Natasha pointed out. "And who would really want to go back to their life in prison, really?"

"If Loki's objective was to take over Earth, he'd have done it by now." Clint added. "Loki is incredibly powerful. You should have seen what he did to those agents in the Dark Energy Mission Facility."

"So why isn't he taking over now? What could he possibly gain from not helping Asgard and staying on Earth?" Jane asked.

"From what I gathered from his conversations with Thor in the hospital, he's not on good terms with his father..." Steve said. "Perhaps he's trying to rebel against him or something?"

"Loki does strike me as the rebellious teenager type." Tony remarked.

Lightening and thunder shook the building and everyone grabbed onto the table to keep themselves stable. Jane was the only one who smiled as she realized who it could be...

"I'd know that pattern of lightening anywhere!"

"You think it's Thor?"

Jane only smiled in response and she stood and all but ran to the nearest window. It was hard to see in the dark, but she was certain she'd seen Thor. And indeed, she did see Thor as he crashed down to Earth, swinging Mjolnir in his hand.

The Avengers gathered to the window as well, hoping to get a glimpse of the mighty thunder god they'd grown so fond of... Something about him was different. The way he carried himself was strange.

"We need to get a better look." Tony said. "Does anyone feel safe enough to go to the roof? Maybe if he sees us he can explain what the hell is going on, huh?" The other Avengers agreed and they all made their way to the rooftop.

Once on the roof, they could see Thor a little better as he was standing on a rooftop a little whiles away. He was looking around as if dazed, not too certain where he was.

"Thor!" Steve called. That caught Thor's attention, and the thunderer swung Mjolnir and flew to the top of Stark's building and landed a few feet in front of his friends.

When they saw Thor, he looked very different. His eyes had dark, heavy circles around them, almost like bruises and his skin looked particularly pale. To Clint, it reminded him a lot of how Loki looked when he first saw him. Something was definitely off, but no one could quite place what...

"You look awful, bud." Tony said. "What, did they beat the crap out of you or something?"

Thor didn't pay him any attention.

"Where's Loki?"

"We don't know, he disappeared. But we're pretty sure we'll find-" Natasha started, but Thor, once again, didn't pay her any attention. He swung Mjolnir and lightening began to crack and thunder shook the ground as Thor leaped from the roof and flew away.

"Something's up." Tony said. "We're gonna have to let S.H.I.E.L.D. know."

"Agreed." Natasha and Clint said simultaneously.

...

Loki sulked in his hospital room, he wasn't expecting so much thunder and lightening. At first he just assumed a storm was quickly forming in Detroit, but after it stopped for a while then came back with a vengeance, he began to think otherwise.

He didn't want to think that it could be Thor. He's just received news that Thor was missing, what... _hours_ ago? There's no way Thor could be back on Midgard so quickly after having been, so-called "lost". But the thunder and lightening returned, an all too familiar, telltale sign of Thor's presence.

Thor had returned, it was obvious now... But what had happened?

* * *

Author's Notes:

Sorry for the lame ending of this chapter. I didn't really want to end it here, but if I had kept going with it, this chapter would have been incredibly long. Which, I'm sure none of you would complain about that, but I prefer to keep my chapters pretty consistent in length.

Anyway, a lot sort of happened in this chapter. I hope it's not too confusing.

I'm sort of out of sorts at this point in time. I just got my wisdom teeth removed and I've been pretty much bedridden for the last couple of days. I'm also menstruating. (Sorry if that's TMI, but hey, it's a part of life.) So I'm super drugged up and even as I'm typing now, my head feels a little foggy and unclear.

Anyway, if in case, this chapter doesn't make sense... Loki doesn't want to return to Asgard because he feels it's hopeless and he honestly doesn't give a damn anymore. As for Thor's return... I can't really say much without spoiling the next chapter. But this is an AU. So keep in mind, in this AU, Ronan does give Thanos the Infinity Stone he was after. (Hopefully you've all been keeping up with Marvel's other movies, so I'm hoping you've seen Guardians of The Galaxy.) If not, please let me know in a review and I'll add some backstory to the next chapter to explain what exactly happened that got Thanos the Infinity Stone. I'll also explain in the next chapter what the Infinity Stone is, (it's basically what powered Loki's scepter in The Avengers) and what it's doing to the characters.

Okay. I'm done. I need sleep.

Thanks for reading and putting up with my slowness for so long. I hope the next chapter comes out a little quicker.

\- Rawiyah


	11. The Past

Summary: AU. After escaping imprisonment on Asgard, Loki returns to earth, only to find himself in a different sort of prison... A psychiatric ward.

* * *

**Chapter 11: The Past**

Thor had only come to threaten Loki once. Just the once, and then for a couple of days Loki did not hear from Thor again. Though, he did hear of all the 'terrible' things Thor was doing to Midgard in his, apparent rage. Loki had never seen Thor so upset, at least, not in a while, anyway. He believed Thor had finally controlled his wild emotions, that Thor wasn't the type to go around smashing things out of anger and spite anymore, not like he did in his youth. Frankly, Loki had thought that Thor had grown up. Apparently, he was wrong. Thor was probably very upset that Loki refused to come back to Asgard to save him.

Either that, or something had been done to Thor's mind. But Loki didn't want to think about that. He'd much rather live on in his own denial than ever face the fact that Thor may be under some kind of spell, and Loki didn't even want to entertain the thought that it was **his** fault that Thor was being possessed. He knew the power of the Infinity Stone that Thanos handed to him through the scepter. He knew what effects it had on his already troubled mind. He could only imagine what it could be doing to Thor's mind. Thor's mild, _untroubled_ mind...

Loki lost count of the number of days he'd been in the hospital, and try as he may, he couldn't seem to get any better. His sleep was awful, he'd been complaining of hearing things and he isolated himself in his room once again. It was as if he were back to square one. He couldn't bear to face Bereit and see that terror in her eyes and he spoke of killing her. The truth was, he didn't really want to kill her. He only wanted to kill those that ever doubted him, those that told him he couldn't rule, that he would never measure up to Thor's greatness, Thor's wonder.

It puzzled him, really. Sure, when he was under the influence of the Infinity Stone in his possession, he killed many innocent people. However, his father saw him as evil long before that... His friends... no, Thor's friends, Sif, The Warriors Three, saw Loki's rule of Asgard to be unfit. They believed he was being harsh for not allowing Thor to return to Asgard. Loki was only doing it for the good of Asgard. Maybe for his own personal gain as well, but both he and his father knew, much better than Sif or The Warriors Three that Thor was not ready to be king. Thor's rule would have caused great struggle and chaos for Asgard and being Thor's friend did not make Thor perfect.

Loki's eyes rolled into the back of his head as he closed his eyes and tried to drown out his thoughts with quiet. He'd grown fond of just laying in bed over the passed few days, just laying in bed and staring at the ceiling, or laying in bed with his eyes closed. It reminded him of being back at home, in his own cell, just letting the days go by while he rots away in a cell, forgotten, surrounded by people who were worth nothing to anyone. He'd expect the hospital staff to kick him out sometime soon, but upon learning he was, in fact, Loki the God of Mischief, they've done the opposite and kept him there under close surveillance. He knew there were probably S.H.I.E.L.D. agents lurking around, dressed as nurses and hospital staff, keeping tabs on him... waiting for him to lose control and kill everyone like some rabid animal.

Loki sighed. He nearly fell asleep until he felt something move around him. His eyes snapped open and he jerked upward, sitting straight.

Something moved in the corner of his eye and he shot his head around as quickly as he could. Someone was standing in front of the window, opposite to his bed in the hospital room. It was Thor! Thor had returned. Loki got a little nervous, Thor has never been able to sneak up on Loki like that before. Thor was too big, bulky, clumsy. Besides, Loki would have heard the door open. Loki was puzzled, but too confused to understand what was going on. Thor's eyes glared into Loki's soul and it made Loki feel nauseous. He brought his knees to his chest and scooted back on the bed, trying to shrink as far away from his brother as he could.

"How did you get here?" Loki asked, though it came out more like a frightened squeak. Loki was ashamed. He'd never been fearful of Thor before, yet this time there was something different about his thunderous brother. Something in Thor's eyes was different, and Loki wasn't sure if it was due to the influence that Thanos obviously had on him, or if it was truly that Thor had changed.

Thor didn't answer, but he took a step forward in Loki's direction, which made Loki panic a little. Though, Loki refused to let it show. Something was very, very off about Thor and it gave Loki a strange feeling in the pit of his stomach. What was it? Fear? Panic? Loki didn't know and he didn't really have much time to figure it out. Thor took another step closer and Loki prepared his hands to attack when the need arose.

And it arose very quickly. Before Loki knew it Thor was on top of Loki, pinning his hands to the bed while Loki struggled against him. Loki tried using what little knowledge he knew of his Jotun powers, trying to muster up some ice or something he could use to fend off Thor, but nothing was working. It was as if with Thor's touch, his magic was drained. He tried to flee, tried to teleport to someplace else, yet, it wasn't working. Nothing was working. It wasn't until Thor moved one of his hands to pin both of Loki's down and used the other to begin stripping Loki of his Midgardian clothes that Loki began to scream out for help.

It was so degrading. Loki never screamed, let alone screaming for help. Loki felt lower than dirt and the shame killed him inside to feel so scared that he'd have to ask for help. No, not ask... **beg**. Like an animal. Loki kicked and flailed as much as he could, trying his best to get Thor to loosen up and hopefully let go of him. His eyes closed and he heard the door to his room bust open. He heard the footsteps of quite a few people as they entered the room and suddenly, the heavy weight of Thor's body had lifted.

"Loki!" A voice called. Loki kept his eyes closed, he didn't want to see the look on anyone's face when they saw Loki's torn clothes and the fear in Loki's own eyes. "Loki! Please look at me." Loki shook his head, but spoke.

"Get him out of here, I don't want Thor here anymore." He whined softly. There was a silence for a little while, and the voice spoke again.

"Loki... Thor isn't here."

Loki's eyes snapped open and he looked around the room. He saw his doctor, Dr. Braun standing behind a woman, the one who was speaking to him, probably a nurse, though he couldn't remember her name. Then he saw some members of S.H.I.E.L.D., who were being obvious as they had their guns drawn... He looked carefully, and surely enough, there was no Thor.

"He was just here..." Loki mumbled.

"There's no way he could have gotten passed our security." One of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents said. Loki's heart pounded in his chest and felt as though it were trying to break from his rib cage. He groaned.

"Loki, can Thor talk to you telepathically? Can he use magic like you can?" The nurse asked. Loki shook his head slowly. He didn't feel the need to explain himself, yet he did it anyway.

"Thor can only use simple tricks, such as bringing things back to life, and even that is a stretch for him."

The room went silent again and Loki was beginning to feel the shame wash over him once more. If Thor was never there...? No, he couldn't have just imagined it, really? He pulled his knees to his chest in an attempt to cover himself. Dr. Braun noticed this,

"Let's give him some privacy." She whispered. The other people in the room agreed and slowly began to leave in a single file line out of Loki's hospital room. Dr. Braun was the last one to go, but before she completely left the room, she turned to Loki and said, "I'll send someone to bring you some new clothes, Loki."

And with that, they left the room.

...

Ronan The Accuser was a fairly tall, blue-skinned man of Kree descent. He wasn't an angry man, no, however, he hated the Xandarians with a passion. It wasn't until the Kree signed a peace treaty with Xandar that Ronan The Accuser knew it was time to take action against Xandar; The planet that harbored all of those that he hated.

However, Ronan The Accuser was not the most powerful being in the galaxy. No, he couldn't bring down Xandar on his own, he needed help from someone with more power. Though, he couldn't think of anyone who'd be willing to bring down an entire planet without good reason. No one except, however, the Mad Titan, Thanos.

Ronan brought his request to Thanos, gaining audience with him rather quickly, seeing as how Thanos was also in need of something, himself. To Ronan's request, Thanos smiled and said,

"Of course, I always was a man with an eye for a bargain. I may be able to help. But there is always a price, is there not?"

Thanos had accepted Ronan's request to destroy Xandar, but only, and he stressed this point, if Ronan would bring him an orb. Not any orb, no, this orb contained something called an Infinity Stone.

What is the Infinity Stone? Not many people in the galaxy are familiar with it. There is a long, gruesome history behind the Infinity Stones, where they came from, what their purpose was, who used them. But Thanos already knew this, he didn't feel the need to share with anyone who didn't need to know... And Ronan definitely DID NOT need to know.

Thanos took a leap of faith, or rather, Thanos decided to clear his life of some clutter, by agreeing to destroy Xandar in trades for this mysterious orb, which contained an Infinity Stone. He was so confident, (or so careless, whichever) that he decided to lend his two, "beloved" adoptive daughters, Gamora and Nebula, to Ronan to help them search for the orb.

Thanos knew that if one failed, the other would easily take her place and finish the job for Ronan. That, and he didn't trust Ronan completely. He needed his daughters to keep an eye out for him, make sure that everything was on the up and up.

Once Thanos lent out Gamora and Nebula, all there was to do now, was wait.

And wait he did.

The Other grew impatient.

"He is going to betray you!" The Other screamed. Thanos ignored him, being more knowledgable than The Other, he knew, if Ronan didn't want to spend the rest of his life putting pieces of his skull back together, he'd deliver the orb without complaint, and true to his word, Thanos would destroy Xandar for him.

.

A few weeks passed and the orb was retrieved. However, it was at the cost of his favorite daughter, Gamora. A lanky, green skinned girl with long, black hair that had the ends dyed a beautiful shade of deep pink. The Other had learned that Gamora had plans to betray Ronan the entire time, that she'd pretend to go to Xandar to fetch the orb, but then sell it to a third party. Thanos could have none of that. However, killing Gamora would have to wait until later.

He had the orb now, he was, once again, in position of power and now that he had another Infinity Stone, he would use to to get back at Loki for not fulfilling his end of their bargain. Thanos was determined. He was determined to use Loki to get closer to Hel, which, in turn would allow him to get that much closer to Death. He was determined to woo Death and anyone who got in his way would only help him kill more to prove his undying affections for the entity.

He would destroy Xandar for Ronan, just as he promised, and then, he'd find Loki and he'd make Loki suffer.

...

The days and nights were both the same, it didn't matter. Loki was being "visited" by Thor each day, sometimes twice a day, and the routine would be the same. Thor would attack Loki, he'd get to tearing off Loki's clothes and making Loki scream in fear and then, in the blink of an eye, Thor would be gone. Completely.

Loki was puzzled, he never knew Thor to have such power that he could send a hologram of himself and not only that, but use it to actually, physically harm Loki. Loki paced in his room, his hands in front of him for protection, simply waiting for the moment when Thor would appear and launch at him again. Sometimes Loki would hold onto his clothes tightly, just in case he were to turn around and Thor would attack him from behind and attempt to rip off his clothing and hurt Loki once more.

It was driving Loki insane, but he couldn't see it. His doctors were very concerned, however, and they'd been monitoring Loki's movement each day, keeping track of how wild he'd get when he felt he was being attacked by Thor.

It got particularly bad one day... It wasn't expected. It was the middle of the afternoon, after lunch was served and being brought back to the kitchen and the patients were dallying about in the common area, all having nothing particular to do, when Loki nearly broke through the door to his room and was flailing and screaming for Thor to leave him alone. It startled the other patients and they were quickly told to go to their rooms.

It wasn't an emergency at first, it was just Loki caught in another psychotic fog and the hospital staff surrounded him swiftly, trying to coax him out of it, telling him Thor was not there, that Thor hadn't been in Detroit for a few days, telling him that Thor was elsewhere on Earth, the Avengers were handling it and he was alright. But it couldn't get through to Loki this time, no... This time Loki was too wrapped in it to come out.

His clothes were torn once more and this time Loki flopped to the ground, kicking and screaming, his eyes were hazy, yet they harbored so much fire. Loki growled and fought back tooth and nail against every staff member that tried to calm him down. Nothing was working, it was the same thing, just Loki kicking and screaming,

"Stop, Thor! No! Stop! You're hurting me, Thor!"

The doctors were called in and at first they recommend that they just leave Loki to writhe on the floor by himself, that maybe once the psychosis passed, he'd be alright and he'd come out of it on his own. So, while Loki was busy fighting "Thor" the hospital staff assigned to the ward left Loki unattended to go and lock the doors of the other patients, for their own safety of course. But the fighting only got harder and the screaming, louder.

Loki, enraged suddenly transformed into his full armor, helm and everything and blindly attacked the air in front of him. He quickly jumped to his feet and very slowly, so slowly, in fact, that once it happened it felt as though it had happened quickly, Loki's skin began to turn into a light, faded blue and his eyes into a deep, blood red. He held his hands above his head, as though he were planning to slam them into the ground... Or, perhaps, slam something he was attacking into the ground.

The hospital staff panicked and the all jumped onto Loki before any damage could be done. Thankfully, there was no damage done as Loki was easily taken down. Something was distracting his concentration, making it hard for him to use his powers. He struggled against the three staff that were on top of him and now having a physical weight against him body made him that much more afraid. Loki screamed at the top of his lungs and started using his superhuman strength to pry the hospital staff off his body.

"Leave me alone, Thor!" He cried. "I don't want this!" The walls around them seemed to turn and melt as Loki's frustration grew.

"I need a sedative here!" One staff member cried and within seconds, the medicine nurse was at her side with a syringe of sedative. "Oh God, please let this work..." She whispered and She approached the screaming, frenzied Loki. He struggled even harder and was almost free of the weight on top of him.

Another staff member approached with a knife to cut away at Loki's clothes to expose some skin so that they could get the needle in. It went downhill pretty quickly once Loki heard the ripping of his clothes from underneath his armor. He grew even more wild and this time he was completely able to pick up the three people that were laying on top of him and he threw them to the other side of the hallway. They hit the hall and landed in a crumbled heap.

"I told you, Thor!" He bellowed. "I do not want you to touch me!"

S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were quickly on the scene, some with very high tech looking equipment that they had to run and get before coming up to the ward. They formed a circle around the fearful Loki, not talking to him, however, not wanting to get Loki any deeper into his psychotic episode than need be. Loki looked as if he were about to charge at them, but he stopped as he was shot with something very powerful. Some sort of taser gun on steroids, perhaps. Loki screamed once more as he fell to the ground and his armor faded away to reveal his regular, torn clothing. He did not lose consciousness, though he was brought down.

The S.H.I.E.L.D. agents got on top of Loki and held him down while a hospital nurse pumped a sedative into his body. Loki didn't fight it anymore, and he eventually gave up to the darkness that surrounded him.

* * *

Author's Notes:

Hopefully this chapter wasn't confusing! I tried to explain it in chapter as best as I could what was happened and what led to Thanos getting the new Infinity Stone to replace the one he'd lost with Loki's scepter,

But I'm just going by what happened in the movies and making my own sort of story out of that. If you haven't seen Guardians of The Galaxy, there's a little bit of a spoiler in this one, and I really hate to spoil the movie, but... what can you do? You know?

So anyway, at the end of The Avengers we see The Other telling Thanos, that to challenge the Avengers is "to court death" and Thanos is like, "Hell yeah!" (Well, that's not quite how it happened, but you get the picture) so I felt it would be appropriate to have Thanos try to mess with The Avengers again as well as attempt to get at Loki.

The scene in this story where I'm explaining what happened between Thanos and Ronan is supposed to have taken place a while before Thanos ever came back for Loki after the events in The Avengers. I don't know if that timeline is actually canon or not, but hey, this is AU, so I'm just going to go with the flow of the way I feel things should be in order for this story to actually work.

In the next chapter I plan to have Bereit make another appearance, as well as Odin and The Avengers. Both the real Thor and Loki's psychotic hallucination of Thor will have some dialogue as well and we'll find out if the real Thor and Loki's hallucination of Thor is one in the same.

Okay, I ramble too much in these notes.

Thanks for reading.

\- Rawiyah


	12. The Now

Summary: AU. After escaping imprisonment on Asgard, Loki returns to earth, only to find himself in a different sort of prison... A psychiatric ward.

* * *

**Chapter 12: The Now**

"His hallucinations are getting worse." Dr. Braun sighed. "He's starting to get delusional, he thinks that his brother has been coming to his room and attempting to harm him. It's gotten to the point now that we have to put him in the seclusion room and wait for these psychotic episodes to pass."

"What could be causing this, do you know?" Natasha asked. "Thor hasn't been to see Loki since... I guess days ago. Since before his return to Earth. Thor has been too busy in other parts of Earth."

"We are both aware of that, Ms. Romanoff, however, Loki doesn't seem to understand. His mind appears to be deteriorating quickly. Episodes of psychosis can usually be linked to stress, lack of sleep, perhaps severe depression, schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. There are quite a few causes."

"Is he safe here?" Natasha asked. "Do you need S.H.I.E.L.D. to send in more agents, or do you think it'd be better if he was moved to a more... _secure _place?"

Dr. Braun hesitated before speaking. "I think it would be wise to monitor him for another day or two and if he gets worse, then transfer him somewhere safer. However, I wish to remain as his doctor. He's a special case and I worry that replacing me with another random doctor might upset him or make his episodes worse when he comes out of it and sees unfamiliar faces."

"That can be arranged." Natasha said. "I'm glad you contacted me."

"We needed to contact the next emergency contact since Thor was... unavailable."

"And I was the next contact?" Natasha tried her best not to chuckle a little. She couldn't imagine Thor listing her as an emergency contact, but she could imagine Tony listing her, just in case.

"Yes." Dr. Braun stated as a-matter-of-fact-ly. "I'll continue to update you on his progress, Ms. Romanoff. If he improves or if he does otherwise."

"Thank you, Dr. Braun." Natasha stood up to shake the doctor's hand.

...

Loki sat in the seclusion room quietly. The 'episode' had passed and now he was just leaning in the rounded corner, staring at the little window where the nurses looked in to see how he was doing. He was still panting pretty hard and beads of sweat rolled down his face. He fought against his hallucination pretty hard and he was feeling as though he'd gotten his ass handed to him.

He wasn't too sure what was going on anymore. No one seemed to tell him what was happening and no one seemed to understand that he felt he was in danger. Thor was always somehow in the same room as him, not matter where he went, Thor would be there too. Loki couldn't understand how Thor suddenly became so magical that he could simply appear before him as though he were a ghost coming through the wall.

It boggled Loki's mind. But what boggled his mind even more was the fact that everyone around him was trying their best to convince Loki that Thor was not magical and that Thor was actually quite busy elsewhere. Thor was never in the hospital and Thor was NOT trying to harm him. That was what really confused Loki the most. Of course Thor was trying to harm him! Of course! How did they think his clothes became torn and how did they think he got those bruises? If he thought about it really carefully, he knew that his struggling could have caused the bruises and his clothes could have torn from his fighting against an invisible force. They could have easily been self inflicted, but they weren't. Loki wasn't the type to hurt himself because he could.

Loki let out a long, shaky breath and he tried to breathe more evenly now, calm washing over him ever so slowly. He looked up when he saw a nurse poking her head in the window to peek at Loki. She watched him for a moment and he turned his head away. He didn't see her when she opened the door, but he did hear the lock click as it opened and he did hear the heavy door swing as it opened.

She didn't even need to explain anything. Loki knew it was an invitation for him to come out and talk about what had transpired. But Loki didn't want to talk. He felt there'd be no point in talking to people who's only objective was to tell him he was wrong and try to mold him into their perfect, quiet, little patient. He got enough of the molding from Odin... whom, of which, he was surprised hasn't sent anyone from Asgard in an attempt to get him to return.

The fear grasped him for a moment again of Thanos. Thanos promised, no, guaranteed him a long, painful torture, filled with lots of tears and suffering. Loki wondered why Thanos didn't just come to him, why was Thanos trying to draw him out? What good would that do Thanos?

"Ah, it only adds to the torment..." Loki lamented. Of course. How could he be so blind? Thanos wanted this to be torture and he knew that by Loki coming to him willingly would add to the shame Loki would feel. Now Thanos had Thor's mind and was using it against Loki.

The Avengers wouldn't want to be around to save him now... The Avengers probably won't even keep their promise to Thor to keep Loki safe from Thanos. Now that Thor was gone, they'd all be gone as well. Loki would be alone again and he'd be stuck. He was a sitting duck on Midgard, especially without the help of the Avengers and without the aid of his brother. He pondered it, then regretted not going back to Asgard when he had the chance. At least on Asgard he'd have guards protecting him and he'd be in a glass containment that might... _might_ keep out Thanos or The Other for a little while.

Loki sighed, then decided to come out of the seclusion room. He wasn't in any mood to talk about what happened, though, he was tired of talking to doctors who didn't seem to take him seriously.

...

"What do you want us to do about it?!" Tony screamed. "We are already keeping our promise, we told Thor we'd keep him safe and that's what we're supposedly doing. I mean, I'm starting to think he wasn't telling the truth when he said that Thanos was after him because it's been fucking weeks and I've seen no sight of any alien invaders except for Thor..." Tony paused to think a moment, "Speaking of which, we have no fucking idea what's gotten into him. He's not responding to us and we actually have to go and fight him to keep him from destroying towns! He's getting worse than Loki..."

"Loki thinks that Thanos might be involved with that. Just let me talk to him, I might be able to get information out of him... Find out what's wrong with Thor and why Thor has turned against us." Natasha tried to reason with the other Avengers, which, was the whole point of her calling the meeting. She had no intentions of freeing Loki, she was simply trying to get her friend, Thor, back to his original state of mind. Thor was not a destructive person, at least, not while she's known him and to have Thor roaming around Midgard, smashing things up, only to leave without a trace, then return again the next day, worried her. This wasn't Thor and she believed Loki when he said Thanos may have something to do with the sudden change in behavior.

"Loki may not be in any state of mind to give you any information." Bruce added. "I'm not a psychiatrist or anything, but from what you've told us, he's really delusional right now. He thinks Thor has been visiting him, thinks Thor has been attacking him, but we all know, Thor can't be in two places at once." Bruce slipped off his glasses. "If you try to prod Loki's mind now, I am afraid it might just shatter completely."

"There's no other way!" Clint spoke up for Natasha. "Why are you even sticking up for him, Bruce? You don't owe him any favors."

"Look, I'm just saying, he may not be ready to give you any factual, useful information... So why waste time?"

"You can't waste time you don't have." Steve added to the conversation. "I'm with Natasha on this one, we need to at least try to get inside of Loki's mind and find out what's been going on with Thor. We'll still keep our promise to keep him safe, and who knows? Maybe Thor really is attacking Loki somehow, we'll never know unless we get the right information from Loki himself."

There was a quiet moment between all of them. At least, before Natasha spoke,

"Then, it's settled? I pull some info from Loki, and then we decide where to go from there?"

"Sounds like a plan."

"Alright."

"Whatever, your funeral."

They all assumed that meant they were all in agreement.

...

Odin was furious once more. He couldn't sit back and watch any longer as both of his sons were sinking into their own, personal oblivion. He watched as Thor rampaged through the streets of Midgard, destroying homes, monuments that the Midgardians had built, he has yet to hurt any Midgardians, but he certainly did a number on them in the cost of damage done to property. It made Odin so uneasy, and he couldn't sit back and watch it any more.

He had to use the Tesseract to return to Midgard and bring both of his sons home. He felt bad, he truly did, realizing he was probably the cause of all of this. If he'd just paid more attention to Loki, just gave him some of the extra attention he gave Thor, then maybe Loki wouldn't have dropped from the Bifrost. Maybe Loki would never have met Thanos and maybe Loki would never have tried to take over Midgard. Maybe if he had simply told Loki of how much he loved him, maybe Loki would be in the castle with him, Frigga and Thor. They'd be a happy family again and they'd have no fighting, there'd be no lost Frigga, no rampant Thor... And best of all, no insanity for Loki. No, they'd be a happy family. But not anymore, and Odin knew it was his fault.

He'd never admit that to anyone but Frigga and Loki. But enough was enough. The next time Thor returned to Midgard from wherever he would leave to in the nine realms, Odin would appear, then Odin would grab Loki from the Midgardian healing room and he'd bring them both home. No more of this nonsense between his sons. Loki was suffering enough and Thor didn't need to be dragged into Loki's suffering as well.

"Heimdall." Odin said to the gatekeeper. "Prepare to open the Bifrost. I am going to Midgard to bring back the princes."

"Yes, My Lord."

...

Natasha wasn't sure how to begin with the conversation. Loki looked shaken up, he averted her gaze and looked around his hospital room nervously, as though he were anticipating something. Probably anticipating an 'attack' from his invisible Thor. Natasha was disappointed at what he'd become. He used to be a proud, strong, and very brave prince of Asgard, albeit very crazy and unpredictable at times, still, he was a ghost of what he'd used to be back then. It was heartbreaking, but nonetheless, Natasha needed to pry Loki's mind for information. Information about Thanos, which could lead to her and the team helping Thor.

"What happened to you, Loki?" The words slipped out of her mouth without much thought. She wasn't actually expecting an answer or expecting to actually say that! She pulled back a little, hoping she didn't offend him. The last thing she needed was to piss him off and possibly set off another psychotic episode, or worse, become a target for his wrath.

"Please, just get on with your questions. I don't want you here any longer than you need to be." Loki stated bluntly.

"Okay..." Natasha started. "Why don't you start by telling me more of Thanos? You say he's controlling Thor's mind, right? How is he capable of doing that? Does Thanos possess the same power that you had with your scepter?"

"Yes." Loki left it at that and did not elaborate. However, when he saw the desperate face Natasha was making he added a little more. "He has the same power because he gave me the scepter."

"Why would Thanos control Thor's mind? What does he have to gain from that?" She asked..

"He's trying to torture me. He doesn't want to kill me, no, no... I'm afraid I'm not worth a quick and easy death." His eyes filled with sorrow and Natasha wanted to quickly change the subject to avoid those eyes.

"So... I'm just guessing, okay? So correct me if I'm wrong... So... You made a deal with Thanos? You agreed to give him the Tesseract if he'd give you the scepter?"

"It would be more accurate to say I was bullied into doing it, but I agreed to do it anyway." Loki drew his legs to his chest where he sat at the head of his bed and he leaned back against the wall, prepared to talk a little more... "I was tired. I had falled through so many dimensions as I fell from the Bifrost, I was drained of all energy. Thanos found me, offered me a deal, a throne for the Tesseract. I was tired, dazed, really... Thanos _convinced_ me I needed to do it and showed me he was a powerful ally. I accepted and now I am here."

"What did Thanos want with the Tesseract? Why would he go through such lengths to get it? What was his ultimate goal?"

"I DON'T KNOW!" Loki screamed. He buried his head in his knees and grabbed fistfuls of his own hair, trying to control his racing thoughts. "He never told me..."

"How can we help Thor? Can you tell me that?"

"I don't know." Loki whispered, he lifted his head to meet the gaze of Natasha and they stared at each other for a little while, eyes not saying much. Loki's mouth opened and he spoke again, "Maybe Thor can be stopped... If he is hit hard enough, similar to how you had untangled Barton from my control..."

"There's no way we'd be able to hit Thor into unconsciousness. He's too powerful."

"If Odin can remove his powers, Thor will be only as powerful as any other mortal."

"How would we get Odin to do that? Odin is light years away."

"Maybe... if-" Loki began, but he stopped as a loud, powerful noise was heard from the roof above them. "Someone just came from the Bifrost." Loki said, sort of an afterthought. Natasha looked at him with eyes wide as saucers. Who could possibly come from the Bifrost? Loki chuckled, "Speak of the devil..."

Odin appeared in the hospital room as quickly as he had made it to Earth. He didn't say anything to either Loki nor Natasha as he magically appeared in front of them both. However, he glared at Loki with his one good eye, making Loki shrink back a little. Odin reached out a grabbed Loki by the collar of his shirt. He pulled Loki up and out of the bed and then, like magic, they both disappeared into thin air, leaving Natasha in a tangled mess of confusion and doubt.

...

Odin could have yelled at Loki, he could have sworn up and down that Loki was in deep shit now. That Loki had finally pulled the last straw. But instead, he just pitied Loki. He held his son close to his chest as they both traveled back through the Bifrost. Odin knew this wasn't the plan, the plan was to grab both Loki AND Thor and return them home, but Odin wanted Loki home first. When he saw the pitiful condition of his son, he knew Loki needed to be home. He could come back for Thor another time, Thor wasn't currently in any major danger as of yet.

"What are you doing?!" Loki screeched. Odin was surprised at his son's outburst. Loki hasn't raised his voice at him since the day he demanded to know about his true parentage.

"You're coming home." Odin said as they both arrived in front of Heimdall, who remained silent as the Allfather and his son began walking away.

"You're leading me like a lamb to slaughter!" Loki screamed. "**He **wanted me to come back!"

"You have such little faith in me that I'd protect you..." Odin sounded hurt.

"I know you won't." Loki spat. "You'd probably welcome my death."

"Loki..." Odin said firmly. "I am so sorry."

"Sorry doesn't change anything." Loki pushed Odin away and began walking towards Asgard on the rainbow bridge, however, he was stopped when a guard rode up to him on a horse, stopping mere feet in front of Loki, jumping off his horse and running to The Allfather.

"My King!" The guard said. "I bring great news."

"What is it?" Odin growled, watching as Loki kept walking away.

"Our Queen has returned!"

Loki stopped dead in his tracks and turned around to gaze at Odin and the guard, his eyes wide.

"Mother..." He whispered and he took off running down the rainbow bridge, headed home to see Frigga.

* * *

Author's Notes:

My notes are really, really long, like, they literally add a couple of hundred words to the chapter, so I'll keep this one short.

I know some of this chapter was confusing, but I promise I'll explain what's happening with Frigga in the next chapter. Also, Thor really is being controlled by Thanos, but Loki is also having some serious psychosis going on, which, we currently can't tell if this is happening because of Loki's illness, or if it's happening because of Thanos. I'll leave that up for the reader to decide.

Okay I'm done.

Thanks for reading, and sorry this chapter took so long to get out there!

\- Rawiyah


	13. The Eyes

Summary: AU. After escaping imprisonment on Asgard, Loki returns to earth, only to find himself in a different sort of prison... A psychiatric ward.

* * *

**Chapter Thirteen: The Eyes**

It was almost too good to be true! Frigga had found her way back to Asgard from wherever the hell she was, and not only that, but she was completely unharmed! She was safe. Loki only wished the same were true for Thor. For now, he assumed Thor was technically safe. The only thing that had been done to him was that his mind was no longer his own. He was wrecking things on Midgard under Thanos' influence.

He'd have to take care of that later, but for now, Frigga had come back! He ran as fast as his tired feet would carry him through the corridors, passed every bedroom, every washroom until he reached the throne room, where Frigga, in all her glory, was standing next to the throne. Loki was overwhelmed with emotion, torn between relief, anger and love. He wanted to throw himself onto his mother and squeeze her, allow her to wrap her arms around him as he laid in her grasp. But something held him back...

Frigga looked at him and did not speak. Her eyes simply looked Loki up and down and Loki saw an expression in her face that he never believed he'd ever see...

Disgust.

Frigga looked at him and looked disgusted. The sight of utter disappointment in her eyes broke Loki's heart into two. He never felt so betrayed, but in her eyes he also saw darkness, darkness that he could recognize easily as Thanos.

It hurt. It hurt so much that Thanos would take someone as loving, kind and pure as his own mother and turn her against him. First Thor, now Frigga. Thanos would stop at nothing to make sure that Loki suffered. Though, Loki couldn't understand why... Yes, he didn't keep his end of the deal. Yes, he said he would, no promised Thanos he would... Was this really necessary? Was all of this worth it to Thanos?

Loki grit his teeth as he looked into the eyes of his 'mother'. She only peered down her nose and him , still, not saying a single word.

Odin entered the throne room as well, behind Loki. He, too, was overcome with emotions for his wife and was tempted to run to her and embrace her, but when he noticed the intensity between his son and his wife, he knew something was wrong. Something had changed in his beloved wife, she no longer had that spark of energy. No longer was she radiating beauty and youth, no... She seemed tired, proud. All the things that he saw in himself.

"What is the meaning of this?!" Odin asked as calmly as he could. Frigga turned her head away from Loki and stepped down from where she stood beside the throne, she approached Odin and snaked her arms around his neck, smiling a strange, seductively wicked smile...

"You were right all along, Dear." Frigga spoke. "He needs to face justice... just like any other criminal." Frigga then turned away from Odin, completely ignoring him and she continued to harass Loki, making Loki feel smaller with each word she spat. "He's nothing but a whore, anyway. A disgrace of a son... You weren't worth the time I spent teaching you magic. You aren't worth anything."

That was Loki's breaking point. He could handle hearing those words coming from anyone else... **ANYONE** else, but not Frigga. Hearing words like that coming from her mouth was like being fed poison from a silver spoon.

Loki felt his heart began to speed up as tears began to cloud his vision. He would die if he allowed Odin to see his tears again. He couldn't allow himself to be seen like this, weak, sad... Crying. No. Loki lowered his head and he disappeared.

...

Odin found him relatively quickly. But, he technically cheated. He could see almost as well as Heimdall into the Nine Realms, he could spot Loki anywhere, and even if he couldn't, he knew Heimdall would. Loki didn't have the energy to cloak himself anymore, it'd all been drained from him. Loki simply sat in a corner of Odin's trophy room, knees held to his chest as he let the tears fall more freely now, despite knowing he was being watched.

"Loki..." Odin began.

"I made a deal with Thanos." Loki said. It was more like word vomit, he couldn't stop the flow of words from spewing out of his mouth. He didn't know what made him start talking about Thanos and his relationship with the Mad Titan. It was as if his tongue had a mind of its own and it had already decided that now was the time to tell Odin. "I made a 'deal' with Thanos. I promised him the Tesseract for Midgard... for... a throne."

Odin remained silent, Loki took that as an opportunity to continue talking.

"I was confused. I had been falling for so long, I would do anything to make it stop. I thought about it, it sounded like a good idea at the time. A throne, no, a whole realm to kneel before me. A realm to see me as a king, a rightful king. I thought..." Loki sighed. "I thought it would make you proud. I thought it would make you see me not as just another worthless Frost Giant."

Odin came foward and kneeled in front of Loki, gazing into his son's swollen, red eyes. Loki's hair was tangled, messy, as it had been when he was in his cell in Asgard. Odin reached out and swept the hair out of Loki's face, causing his son to flinch and shrink away from his touch.

"I never meant to hurt you, Loki..." Odin admitted. "I've made many mistakes with raising you... Perhaps, I expected too much from you at too young of an age." Odin pulled back his hand as he noticed Loki getting a little fidgety. "I may not have been the perfect father for you, Loki... But I have never lied when I told you I loved you." Odin stood up and began to walk away at that point, when Loki's voice stopped him in his tracks.

"I need to fix Thor." Loki said softly. "It's my fault he's ruining Midgard, and I have to correct my own wrongdoings."

"I will help you, Lo-"

"No!" Loki also stood, wiping the tears from his face, he walked to brush passed Odin and he snarled, "I don't need _your _help. I will fix this on my own." And with that, Loki took off running out of Odin's Treasury to the Rainbow Bridge, to Heimdall's Observatory.

...

The Avengers were trying their best to remove the spell that Thor was under. Thor was creating many disasters on Earth, breaking buildings, ruining streets, causing millions of dollars in property damage, however, he has yet to kill anyone. Some people he has harmed a little, but nothing fatal, not yet anyway... His rage was mostly focused on destroying the peace of Midgard, and all of the people of Earth were scared, wondering what they could have possibly done to offend the God of Thunder.

The only one of the Avengers who could possibly get close to matching Thor in strength was The Hulk, but as of lately, Thor always seemed to overpower even the Hulk. Tony would try to distract Thor by using non-lethal attacks, blasting him with energy and using special missiles that would only serve as to shock the angry Asgardian or to stun him just for a moment. None of this works, however and the Avengers were quickly running out of ideas.

Thor was at it again, this time he was in New York, it was late at night, or rather, very early in the morning. So early, in fact, that most people were retired to their homes and were asleep. But not the Avengers. Thor was using his lightening to destroy parked cars on the road, ripping traffic lights from their sockets and literally tearing up the sidewalk of the city.

Steve got close to Thor while Thor was in the middle of throwing cars into nearby buildings.

"Don't make me do this, Thor..." Steve said. "I know you're in there." But Thor was too far gone to take heed to anything his friend had to say and as predicted he lashed out at his friend and swung his hammer at Captain America, in which, Cap blocked it's impact with his shield. The rest of the Avengers went in after him one at a time and they all watched in horror as they were picked off like ticks. One right after the other, none of them could get too close to Thor without Thor swinging his hammer and knocking them ten feet back.

"He's too powerful!" Black Widow yelled over the sound of roaring thunder to Ironman. "We're going to have to wait it out like last time!"

"We can't wait it out this time!" Ironman responded. "The lives of other people are at risk, if one of those cars he's throwing around hits an apartment building, or if one of his lightening bolts decides to hit some electrical wiring system, then we're fucked."

Thor picked up another car, however this time it was aimed at The Hulk, who was prepared to catch it... Their fight was interrupted for a short moment as a bright, blinding flood of light appeared. By now, Natasha recognized this light as that of the Bifrost. She had thought that Loki returned from Asgard with help.

When the light cleared, all that they saw was Loki, looking tired with deep bruises under his eyes, yet his full armor remaining intact. Natasha had to admit, her heart fell a little.

"Do not interfere." Loki said to the Avengers. "This is my problem and I will deal with it."

"Hey, listen here, _Reindeer Games_." Tony began, "This is our problem too. Yeah, you were definitely the cause of it, there's no doubt about that, but when you come to OUR planet, threatened the lives of OUR people, then it becomes OUR fucking problem too!"

Loki only ignored them, partially and secretly glad that they wanted to interfere. He'd need all the help he could get with bringing Thor back. He was certain that none of them would even get close enough to land a proper hit on Thor, let alone sock him hard enough to cause unconsciousness. Loki wasn't too sure at this point that he'd even be able to hit Thor that hard. His strength had been drained, but regardless, he knew he'd be the only one to get close enough to Thor to try.

Thor noticed Loki right away and he quickly flew to stand in front of the God of Mischief. Loki only stared into Thor's cold, heartless eyes. The Thunderer only glared back and he opened his mouth to speak a string of words, something that the Avengers have not heard in a while.

"Look at you." Thor spat. "Pathetic. You've always been Argr... Unworthy to sit on the throne of Asgard, giving birth to that monster... Sleipnir. My father had the right idea of how to deal with your monstrous offspring..."

That was a hit below the belt, Loki could handle Thor insulting himself, but **no one **insulted Sleipnir. Loki still heldfast, the insults came spewing from Thor's mouth with such speed Loki could have sworn he'd be cut down to size with the words alone. As Loki half listened to Thor's little rant, he remembered the time he spent in the hospital... He remembered his doctor, Dr. Braun, how many times she told him that she cared about him, how many times the other doctors showed they cared. He thought about Bereit, and he felt sorry for having scared her so much. He didn't want to, but he even thought about Odin. He contemplated Odin's words:

_I may not have been the perfect father for you, Loki... But I have never lied when I told you I loved you_

A sudden feeling of worthiness boiled in Loki's heart as he remembered his time spent on Midgard, he reveled in it. The memories of being told he was worthy, being told that someone cared... It gave him a warm feeling in his stomach and gave him a strange sense of overwhelming confidence.

Loki raised his fist as Thor was still spewing insults and Loki punched Thor in the jaw. The impact sent Thor's head flying to the side and it was enough to stun him into silence. However, not enough to send him into unconsciousness. Loki knew this, but it still felt good to punch his brother. Thor wasn't even that upset, in fact, he looked almost happy, as thought that was the reaction he _wanted_ from Loki.

Thor began to laugh a little and it worried Loki, but not enough to make Loki turn away. Loki stood his ground as Thor's head slowly, slowly turned to face Loki. There was a scary sort of madness in Thor's eyes...

The God of Thunder lifted Mjolnir high into the air and quickly began to swing it down onto Loki, who couldn't move fast enough to avoid it.

"Loki!" The Avengers called.

"Move out of the way, idiot!" Tony yelled.

Loki didn't have time to dodge the swing, he was, however, prepared to try to block the hit when it did come down onto his body.

Time seemed to slow down, it felt as though Loki was waiting forever for the hammer to come down on his face, in this time Loki regretted not at least attempting to flee. He could visibly see so many memories flashing before his eyes. Memories of when he was a child with his brother and parents. Memories of when he was on Asgard as a child, playing in the corridors with Thor, testing his magic with his mother and smiling as Odin took him and his brother on a trip to the mountains. He sad things as well, he remembered when Sleipnir was born, when his other children were born and taken away... He remembered when he was forced to give Sleipnir to Odin as a birthday gift... Worse, he remembered when Odin rejected him, and he remembered falling... Falling... falling... falling.

He dared to open his eyes and look up at Thor, but the second his eyes began to slide open, there was another bright lights that flashed and suddenly time sped up, so fast that Loki couldn't keep up with it. Suddenly Thor was on the ground, unconscious and The Avengers were gathering around, looking at their friend with sadness and relief on their faces. Loki looked around, he couldn't figure out what happened... How did Thor go from almost smashing his head in, to suddenly being knocked out on the ground.

A familiar aura could be felt and Loki groaned as he turned around and low and behold, Odin stood behind Loki, wielding Gungnir, looking hurt as he stared at Thor's unconscious body in a tangled heap on the ground. Loki was angry and he turned around and shoved Odin roughly.

"I told you, I could handle this on my own!"

"If by handle, you mean get yourself killed, then yes, Loki. You were doing an excellent job at that."

Loki growled, deciding that arguing with Odin wasn't worth the effort and he moved to Thor's side. Looking into the Thunder God's face. Thor looked so peaceful now, there was no more madness in his features, that was long gone. It was just Thor now. His brother had returned.

Loki felt so much relief and love for his brother. Had no one been watching, he'd probably have kissed his brother, oh, he missed him so much. At the same time, Loki was afraid... Loki still remembered clearly the times that Thor had attacked him in the hospital, he could never forget that no matter how hard he'd tried. Loki idly ran his finger's through Thor's hair and he continued to look at his brother's face with sadness in his eyes.

Natasha put a hand on Loki's shoulder. "It's over." She whispered.

"Come." Odin demanded. Loki peered over his shoulder and glared at Odin. "We're returning to Asgard."

"I want nothing more to do with Asgard." Loki grumbled.

"You said you wanted to prove yourself worthy to be a king, Loki?" Odin began. This got the Avengers interested, they'd never heard this side of Loki before. "You have your chance now. You have a responsibility to Asgard, Frigga is under the influence of the Mad Titan. You will fix this."

"Frigga is lost." Loki sighed. "I cannot bring her back."

"Loki." Steve said and he knelt beside the God of Mischief. "We're here to help."

Tony reluctantly spoke as well to Loki after Natasha elbowed him in the ribs. "Yeah, Loke, this Thanos guy... He's bad news, and like all other bad guys, he's going down."

Loki remained silent. He felt torn, he wanted Frigga back, and having Thor return to him was motivating. Yet, he didn't want to entertain the idea of getting Thanos more upset. He searched his thoughts, trying to find some sort of weakness in Thanos, trying to figure out how he could get his mother out of this, after all, she had nothing to do with his betrayal to Thanos.

"I will remain on Midgard." Loki told Odin. "Thanos only wants me, I will contact The Other and he will come for me. He will then release Frigga from his control. He doesn't want Asgard."

Loki easily persuaded Odin that this was the best thing to do, so Odin returned to Asgard, but not without telling Loki to be safe and express his love for his son once again. Loki kept his focus on Thor as Odin was lifted to Asgard by the Bifrost.

The other Avengers gathered around Loki and Thor. Loki didn't like the feeling of eyes piercing into his mind, he used his magic to make both himself and Thor disappear.

...

Thor regained consciousness almost immediately once Loki had teleported them to a place of safety, away from the eyes of The Avengers and away from the eyes of Heimdall and Odin. He brought them back to Detroit, to an abandoned home in the middle of dark, eerie woods. The building was falling apart, walls were peeling, bricks had fallen from the outside of the house and there was a light, but foul smell that told Loki there was obviously some parts of the house that were rotting. None of it mattered to Loki, however, when he saw Thor's big blue eyes open and when he saw how magnificent they were, he felt like he wasn't in some old, abandoned home in Midgard, he felt like he was in Valhalla.

Thor looked at Loki and his lips curved into a smile. "Brother..." He whispered.

"Shh, Thor..." Loki cupped Thor's cheek in his hand as he allowed his elder brother's head to relax on his lap. "Do not speak."

"Brother, I... I'm so sorry. Did I put you in danger? You know, when I was-"

"I told you, Thor... Do not speak."

And Thor went silent. Loki ran his fingers through Thor's hair and hummed softly, simply happy to have his Thor, the way Thor used to be, back. If this would be his late moments with Thor, he wanted them to be pleasant memories. He wouldn't blame Thor for all the fear that lingered in his heart, and Thor wouldn't spend the next couple of days apologizing to Loki for it.

* * *

Author's Notes:

Thorki is approaching. Sorry it took pretty much 13 chapters for it to get there. As I said before, I don't really plan out like, "Okay, Thorki in this chapter and then Thorki in the next chapter" I wanted to focus more on drama and plot than romance, but I will have it thrown in there.

Anyway. Let me know if you find any mistakes, this chapter wasn't really proofread, as it's late, but I wanted to update this.

Thanks!

\- Rawiyah


	14. The Plan

Summary: AU. After escaping imprisonment on Asgard, Loki returns to earth, only to find himself in a different sort of prison... A psychiatric ward.

* * *

**Chapter Fourteen: The Plan**

Loki knew he had to make contact with Thanos sooner or later. These would be his final moments and he couldn't stall any longer. Thanos probably knew exactly where he was and he would be ready to use any and every dirty trick in the book to get Loki to come to him, begging for the torment to stop...

Loki glanced over at where Thor laid asleep on the shabby, wooden floor of the old abandoned house. His heart was racing as he thought of making contact with The Other. He didn't want to, he was too afraid for what would happen to him, what sort of threats The Other would make, what sort of things Thanos had planned for him next.

He looked back at his feet, then to the broken window where light was starting to flood in. He started to chew on his bottom lip, trying to work up the bravado to contact The Other. He looked at Thor one more time, trying to think of a wonderful memory, something pleasant he'd shared with his thunderous brother, but the only thoughts that came to his mind were the immediate feelings of terror when he remembered his brother attacking him. He shook his head violently as though trying to shake the thoughts out of his head, but they stayed strong in his memory.

He was burning with anger... One of the few people that Loki honestly loved. One of the few people that he enjoyed his memories with, his own brother, the memories he'd shared with him were now forever tainted by the evil that controlled his brother's mind. He was so angry, he wanted to kill Thanos and The Other for perfectly destroying the innocence, the beauty and the sunshine of his brother's memory.

After what felt like hours of just staring off into space, Loki finally gained the confidence to reach The Other. He closed his eyes, allowing for his double to reach The Sanctuary where Thanos resided...

"You've come to beg for mercy, Asgardian?" The Other cooed. Loki turned away, trying to avoid the evil happiness that rang in The Other's voice.

"I've come to put an end to this." Loki said. "Allow my mother to be released of the influence of the Infinity Stone, allow for Asgard to remain safe, do not harm my brother and I will give myself to you. That is my bargain."

"Ah..." The Other purred. "It is good to see... that Thanos has finally _broken_ the proud, Asgardian prince." Then The Other laughed, a deep, hearty laugh that hurt Loki deeply, more deeply than the words The Other spat at him. He felt weak. He knew he was doing the right thing. He made mistakes and he was paying for them... with his life, most likely. Not unless Thanos had other plans for him, which was also plausible. His father would approve. Loki snarled as The Other's laughter quieted and he appeared before Loki in a streak of light. He opened his mouth, flashing his bloody, red teeth at Loki, but Loki spoke the faster,

"First." He said. "Allow me to give my farewells to my brother and mother." Loki knew he was probably pushing his chances, Thanos wanted to see Loki suffer, Thanos probably wouldn't let Loki even see his family again. Loki was raised that he'd never get what he wanted if he never asked for it, and this was one of those moments where he believed he was raised wrongly. Though, on Asgard, 'asking' for something was more like getting into a physical fight with another person over the thing that you wanted and whoever proved to be the strongest was rewarded with it. Loki sighed at the thought.

He least expected Thanos to appear. More like, he was always there, always listening, but never showing his face until now. Thanos' rock throne slowly turned from where it was floating in space and Loki dared himself to glance up to gaze at the Mad Titan. Thanos had the world's best poker face, he held very little emotion on his purple features other than sternness. His raging blue eyes pierced through Loki's soul and his voice shook the surface of the rocky realm,

"You **will** return." He said. This was a demand. Loki knew better than to cross the Mad Titan, especially after the hell he'd been through with him having broken his end of the deal. Loki nodded to Thanos and the Mad Titan slowly leaned back in his seat.

"Yes, of course." Loki meant to speak clearly, but the words died on his tongue and came out as a soft half-spoken whisper. He disappeared just as quickly as he'd appeared in the Sanctuary. Secretly hoping that there'd be some way, some way his thunderous brother would protect him. Secretly hoping that somehow, Thor would overcome the evil of Thanos and rescue him from his fate. He knew better, though...

...

Thor had awaken and was standing in the light of the broken window now. He wasn't doing anything really, just studying his environment. Detroit was nothing like the places he'd visited on Midgard before. No, Detroit was empty, lifeless... dead.

"Enjoying the view?" Loki asked.

"No."

Loki regretted the thought of having to tell his brother that he was going to, quite possibly die at the hands of Thanos. He contemplated the idea of Odin coming to help, but he was beginning to doubt even Odin would step in to help him at this point. Odin probably didn't care, after all, The Allfather could see almost everything, he was almost as ever watchful as Heimdall, yet, he chose not to intervene when he first made a deal with Thanos, he chose not to intervene when Thor was fighting him on Midgard, he chose not to intervene when Thanos had first began to torment him...

"I have decided..." Loki began. "I have decided that I will go with Thanos."

"What?!" Thor roared. "No, Brother, you will not go with Thanos. I will protect you, you don't have to do this.."

"No, Thor." Loki hung his head. "I have no choice."

Thor didn't argue with his brother anymore, instead he just moved in closer to Loki and reached around Loki to place his hand on his brother's hip. When Loki saw Thor's hand moving towards his hip, a sudden, fierce memory flared up in his mind.

A memory of when he was in the hospital, locked in the seclusion room, where Thor was looming above him, his hand at Loki's hip, trying to rip Loki's pants off.

Loki's eyes grew wide and he immediately swatted Thor's hand away, backing away from his brother slowly and panting as the memory faded from his mind. Thor only stared at his brother sadly. Loki looked at his feet, still panting heavily when something sounded off in the distance...

Something that Loki was having a hard time hearing, but he was certain he heard something nonetheless. It sounded almost like a scream, but he couldn't be certain, it was as though it were muffled and it sounded so, so far away, yet, so close. He got a terrible, nauseous feeling in the pit of his stomach and he turned to the door of the abandoned house.

"Where are you going?" Thor asked.

"I have to do something." Loki said, it wasn't a complete lie. He was going out to see what the noise was, and why he got this sudden feeling of sickness in his stomach. He did not know what he'd actually end up doing.

...

Bereit had been discharged from the hospital at long last. The decision was not to send her to a residential treatment program, as she had made it clear that was not where she wanted to go. Despite pressure from her husband, who demanded she be sent away, Bereit proved she did not need intense, 24 hour treatment and was, against her husband 'advice' sent back home.

He hated that she had returned, he felt like she needed to stay. Not because he actually cared about her, but rather because it was hard to cheat on your wife when they're living under the same roof as you. Bereit knew now to avoid making a fuss with him when it came to the cheating. She didn't want to get beaten again, and perhaps maybe if she messed up enough times, he'd just divorce her and he'd be out of her life.

Though, she knew he wouldn't divorce her. She knew that, if for no other reason, he liked having her around to take his frustration out of her. Just as Loki had taken his frustration out on her in the hospital. Bereit sighed, everyone took their frustration out on her.

She walked through the streets of Detroit by herself, wearing her weight lifting training gloves. They were fingerless, but packed a lot of bulk, giving her rather large looking fists. She always felt very proud wearing them, she'd been lifting weights for a while now, and she wasn't a body builder or anything close, but she definitely had some muscle built up. She was prepared for the rough streets of Detroit and didn't mind walking by herself.

It was pretty early in the day, perhaps one or two PM when she was walking home from the gym when she spotted two men picking on another woman. The woman looked distressed and she seemed to be talking to them but the men were not listening. This woman also appeared to have just left the gym. Bereit couldn't ignore it. She approached them men as well and asked that they leave the woman alone, but she was ignored.

The men simply shoved Bereit away and continued to talk to the woman, who got even more distressed. Bereit wouldn't take that sort of nonsense.

She hit one of the men, square in the face with her best punch. He fell backwards, he wasn't too badly hurt, but he was very shocked. The woman ran to Bereit's side and Bereit smirked.

"Hmph." She smiled. "Small fisted freak."

But as Bereit turned around to walk away, something went over her head, covering her face, including her eyes and mouth. It was cloth, probably an oversized hat and she brought her hands up to take it off, but as soon as the cloth went over her face, she felt a hand reach up and grab her neck, squeezing it tightly and cutting off her air supply. She tried to scream, but nothing came out.

Bereit was thrown to the ground, and she could feel the hand around her neck loosen enough for her to breath, but not enough for her to get away. There was a heavy against her back as she was on her stomach on the cement ground and she could slowly feel her yoga pants being peeled down from her body and she felt horror when she could also feel her underwear being pulled down as well. She screamed as loud as she possibly could, but her screams were muffled against the cloth over her face. It was dark behind the cloth and she felt even more scared that she could not see anything.

She heard them talking, the men, there was more of them now and she could hear their voices as they gathered, it must have been a gang.

"Let's teach this dumb broad a lesson." One man spoke, she heard a chorus of agreements and she continued to scream, or, continued to try to scream, anyway. She wasn't being heard and she grew more and more anxious and scared as the seconds ticked by so slowly.

Then, time seemingly sped up. It went so fast, Bereit didn't know what had hit her. They were on top of her, raping her in **broad daylight**.

Bereit did not stop screaming, she couldn't stop if she tried, the pain was too much to bear, but even though she believed her screams went unheard, she would be most happy to learn that they, in fact, did not go unheard.

Loki heard.

Loki arrived at the scene pretty quickly, but not quickly enough to save Bereit from being attacked apparently. This was where the horrible, sickness was coming from, Loki understood. As he watched in horror as Bereit was being hurt, he could feel the hands of Thor tugging, tearing at his clothing, covering his body with his own heavy weight.

A sudden feeling of pure rage overwhelmed Loki and he pulled the men from Bereit and swiftly killed them. It happened so quickly and Loki was so disconnected, he didn't even realize what he'd done until he saw the men's tangled mess of bodies scattered on the sidewalk. He looked at Bereit who was squirming a little on the edge of the sidewalk, weeping, though it wasn't too loudly.

Loki removed the jacket of his Asgardian clothing and covered Bereit with it. She was scared at first, and fought against him, but she calmed when he spoke,

"Bereit..." And she immediately knew who it was. She went still as he grabbed her arms and pulled her to her feet, then removed the cloth from over her head. He stared into her red eyes, tears still leaking from them, her face was still scared, but more than scared, she looked ashamed. Loki could understand that feeling, he felt the same way after he'd had to explain to his father about Sleipnir's conception. Loki understood more than anyone what Bereit had gone through and he couldn't have a good conscience leaving her the way he'd been left.

"L-Loki..." She choked between her sobs.

Thor also arrived shortly after Loki had helped cover Bereit. He looked at the woman sideways and then at his brother, surprised to see Loki talking to a human without malice in his voice.

"P-please... just take me home."

Loki allowed her to show him the way to her home, with Thor trudging along behind them, still bewildered that his brother was capable of such kindness towards a mortal. And a mortal _woman_, no less. Loki walked with her, an arm around her shoulders to keep the jacket in place. As they walked, Thor noticed a change in the woman's aura. He said nothing, but Loki noticed it too.

"Hey, Loki." The woman said, it was Berry now, Loki remembered from the time in the hospital when he'd coaxed Berry out from her hiding place inside of Bereit with his questions of her personal life. "I guess I was too late again. Damn."

"It couldn't have been prevented." Loki said. "It doesn't matter whether you were there or not."

"Did Bereit tell you to take her home?"

"Yes."

"That's probably not the best place for us to be..." Berry said. "But it's the only place we have, and I appreciate it, Loki."

"Is Bereit still unaware of your existence?"

"Yes. So, if you can, please keep this between us? Hopefully when she comes back, she'll just think this was all a bad dream."

"Yes, let's hope."

They arrived at the front door of a decent sized house. Loki allowed Berry to keep the jacket and she quickly opened the door and ran inside after thanking the god for walking her home. Loki turned to Thor and gave a look as if to say 'Don't make me explain this'. Thor didn't catch on to that look though, and asked,

"Brother, who was that woman?"

"The one I had met in the hospital, Thor." Loki sighed. "The one who's mind had been fractured, her personality split."

"What happened to her?"

Loki thought about how to respond. With sarcasm? With anger? He settled on responding with honesty. "She was raped."

That silenced Thor. Something changed in Loki's heart, something that made him realize, completely that he truly didn't want to be the villain all the time. He didn't want to be known as the 'bad guy', he simply wanted to be known again as Loki. A trickster he may be, but he wanted to be known as Loki, not the 'bad guy' like Tony so elegantly put it. He didn't want to be just another number that needed to be 'brought down'. Midgard was a realm with many flaws, just as Asgard had many flaws... But he decided now, that he wanted to stay on Midgard. He wanted to better himself and not lose himself to the woes of his family, the heartbreak of being a failure to Odin, the fear of suffering at the hands of Thanos. He was very, very over it all.

"Tell Heimdall to open the Bifrost." Loki commanded Thor. "I know Frigga is still lost, but I at least want to see her one last time..."

...

They arrived on Asgard, and again, Loki was faced with Frigga's disapproving features. She did not speak to Loki, and Loki thought it would be wise not to speak to her in return, for he'd rather his last memory of her be pleasant... or, at least be tolerable than to have it be of her saying things that would be hurtful to him. He couldn't die with horrible memories of his mother. He hated Thanos for taking away the beauty of his mother, taking away the love she'd had for him, the love they shared with each other. Taking away the warmth of her touch and the gentleness in her eye.

It was gone now, and Loki would just have to be satisfied with the memory of her face, though, it wouldn't be a warm memory. Instead, a memory of Frigga's mean, cold, face. Loki turned away from Frigga and left the room, walking down the long corridor of the palace.

He ran into Odin as he was walking and Odin, of course, questioned why Loki had returned and why he was not on Midgard, drawing Thanos there. Loki explained,

"I am giving myself to Thanos. He has been gracious enough to give me this chance to say my farewells, and then... I will perish."

"No, Loki." Odin said. Loki was suddenly thrown back into the past, where he was dangling from Gungnir over an abyss of darkness. He could feel the tears welling in his eyes and he screamed at his father...

_I could have done it, father! I could have done it! For you! For all of us..._

And his heart nearly stopped when he remembered the look in Odin's eye and the way he spoke,

_No, Loki._

No, Loki.

**No, Loki.**

"Why are you doing this?!" Loki yelled, pushing Odin away. "You weren't there for me then... Why are you pretending now?" But Loki didn't wait for his father to answer, he just shoved him away and ran passed him, bumping into Thor on the way out.

Thor grabbed Loki by the arms, causing Loki to remember the attacks clearly in his mind again, but when Loki struggled against him, Thor's grip tightened and this caused Loki to fall into a psychotic rage as he fought and struggled against Thor with all that he had. Thor pulled his brother into an embrace, hoping it would calm him down a little, but instead it only added fuel to the fire. Loki was screamed and flailing at this point, kicking Thor and wiggling in his grip.

"Brother..." Thor said. "It deeply saddens me that this is what you've become." Thor let go of Loki and the God of Mischief stumbled backwards, falling to the ground, shaking. Thor's words fell on deaf ears and Loki was still wrapped in his own psychosis that he didn't hear anything Thor had said.

The moment passed and Loki recovered in about ten minutes. His breathing evened out and he slowly got to his feet, dusting himself off and looking slightly dazed and confused, as though wondering where he was.

"I must go." Loki said. "Thanos had demanded it."

Thor opened his mouth to speak, but his words were to slow to roll off his tongue and Loki had already disappeared.

...

"It is good to see..." The Other spat, "That you are not as blinded by stupidity as we had originally thought."

Loki grumbled a little, quietly in his throat.

"Thanos has plans for you, Asgardian." The Other chuckled.

Loki looked at Thanos, who simply stared back at him, and he knelt in front of the Titan, praying fora swift death and no more of this torment. What he did not expect next was for The Other to suddenly fall to the ground, dead and Thanos not being phased by it in the slightest.

"You will regret having gotten involved with my son, Thanos."

Loki's eyes widened.

"He no longer belongs to you." Odin lifted Gungnir, prepared to fight. Thanos, on the other hand floated over to the surface of the rocky realm and stood, towering over Loki.

"You would fight me..." Thanos said. "For your traitorous, murdering son."

"He is still my _son_." Odin said.

"Very well, Allfather."

And the two lunged at each other, Loki backing away from the fight, eyes wide with shock and relief that, of all people, Odin, no, not Odin... His_ father _was here to protect him.

* * *

Author's Notes:

Because of the actual rape scene in this story, I have decided to change the rating. Even though I didn't go into explicit detail, I still felt it'd be appropriate to change it.

Okay, so, that scene with Bereit was actually directly from one of my nightmares. Literally. Like, the words, everything. I had that nightmare and I woke up in the middle of the night. My therapist says when nightmares happen, it's good to write them down so that they are out of your mind. Then with what you've written you can burn it, or otherwise get rid of it, right? So, I wrote this scene down a long time ago, with no specifics in it at all, then later went back and read it and realized that this situation would be something that Loki could possibly identify with, considering he was raped by Svadilfari to create Sleipnir. I have a reason for adding this, it'll all make sense in the next chapter, which I will be writing shortly after posting this, I promise.

This chapter is very slightly longer than my other ones, as this story is wrapping up. Yay! I had a blast writing this, but it's getting to the point where I finally have the characters at that place where I want them to be, and I already have an ending planned out and it's approaching quickly, either in one or two more chapters.

In the next chapter, Odin and Thanos will fight. Which, is a little daunting for me, it'll be a challenge as I haven't ever been too great at writing and describing fight scenes. But I'm willing to give it a whirl, I like a good challenge. There will also probably be some more slight Thorki going on. I never planned to get too deep into the Thorki because I want the story to be more Loki-centric. So, okay... this note is REALLY FUCKING LONG!

So I'm going to end it here, sorry!

I just wanted to keep you all updated on what was going on with the story and why certain things happened the way they did.

Okay, that's it, I'm done.

Look forward to the next chapter, it will be coming here shortly and it'll also probably be pretty long.

Thanks for reading! And if you read this note, kudos to you because this note was incredibly long!

\- Rawiyah


	15. The Battle

Summary: AU. After escaping imprisonment on Asgard, Loki returns to earth, only to find himself in a different sort of prison... A psychiatric ward.

A/N: I haven't forgotten about this story. The end is nigh!

* * *

Chapter Fifteen: The Battle

...

"What do you want to be when you grow up, Thor?" Loki asked as he and his brother laid on the grass and stared up into the bright, blue, Asgardian sky. They were children again. He heard Thor chuckle softly in his throat and he turned his head where he laid on the ground to look at his blonde brother. Loki loved his brother, so much that when he turned his face to gaze upon his brother's glow, he could have cried at how beautiful Thor was. The way the sun caressed his brother's golden skin seemed to make Thor appear as through he were an angel, glowing in angelic dust of timeless beauty.

"Brother, when I grow up, I plan to be the greatest king that has ever led Asgard." Thor bellowed. He sounded so sure of himself, as though it were so simple to just grow up into a wise, knowledgeable king. As if Thor were just a little plant that Odin was watering, a plant that was guaranteed to grow to it's full potential. What was Loki's potential? Once Thor was king of Asgard... what would become of him? Loki turned his head away from Thor as he continued to stare at the clouds that slowly slide across the sky.

"What of you, brother?"

Loki couldn't think of how to answer Thor's question. He didn't know what he wanted to be. It seemed he was always a disappointment to everyone but Frigga. When he decided to stop learning how to do battle with Thor and his friends and decided to focus on magic, Odin was disappointed... At least, that was how Loki perceived it. Odin showed obvious disappointment after Loki had announced that he would learn magic from his mother. At first, Loki was so afraid of disappointing Odin that he begged his mother to allow her to teach him in secret.

He didn't expect he'd actually show talent in the art of magic.

"Loki?"

Thor's voice brought Loki from his musings. "I just want to be loved. That's what I want to be when I grow up, Thor..." Loki let out a long, heavy sigh as he stared into the universe. He felt almost as though he could see far beyond Asgard, far beyond the reach of Heimdall or even Odin himself... It felt as though he could see the entire existence of every being in every universe that was out there, far beyond the reach of his own universe. "I just want to be loved."

Loki was a little startled when he felt Thor's arms sneaking around his slim form. Before Loki could protest, the wind was knocked out of him as Thor pulled him into a strong embrace. Too strong, in fact, to the point where the air would not reach Loki's lungs as Thor squeezed his baby brother against his body with heartfelt earnest.

"Know this, brother, wherever you go, you will always be loved. If by no one else, you will be loved by me." He gave Loki's body another tight, crushing squeeze. "Always."

...

"Loki! Where have you been?!"

Loki was naked, dirty and looked disheveled. He was ashamed to have to approach Thor looking like this. So vulnerable, so scared. Yet, he wouldn't have gone to anyone else like this. Not even Frigga. Loki's eyes were red and his face was dirty, yet there were two clear streaks that led from his eyes to his chin where his tears had cleaned the dirt and grime from his face.

"I..." Loki began, but the words never left his mouth.

"You've been gone for _weeks_, Loki!" Thor exclaimed, as though Loki didn't understand he was gone for so long. "Mother was so worried! She hasn't eaten anything in days... Loki..." Thor must have felt as though his words were not registering, because he continued to babble on about how all of Asgard was turned upside down in search for Loki. Though, Loki understood this wasn't true, it was just a fabrication made up in Thor's mind. Or rather, it was Thor's naivety that was blinding him to the true motives of his fellow Asgardians. Of everyone on Asgard, Loki knew the only ones who were worried about him were Frigga and Thor. Maybe... _maybe_ Odin, but chances of that were slim.

"... I have made a terrible mistake." Loki choked out softly. His voice getting caught in his throat as he talked. Thor's face contorted in confusion.

"What do you mean, Loki? It was no mistake that you've found your way home once-"

"No." Loki didn't say anything more, he just turned around and waited a moment, leaving Thor to stare past Loki into the darkness of the empty Asgardian streets. He waited a moment, then carefully watched as Loki lifted his frail fingers to his mouth and emitted a soft, light whistle that sounded through the fog that blanketed across the golden streets of Asgard that lay quietly just outside of the palace.

Thor was even more confused now, at first, he didn't see anything happening, but surely, within a few seconds of Loki's whistling, there came the gentle pitter pat of what sounded like horse hooves, although, very small hooves. And many of them. Where there multiple foals following Loki home? Thor knew Loki always had a fondness for horses, but this was ridiculous!

Not much to his surprise, it turns out there was a foal that followed Loki home. It was a little, grey foal, skinny with slim legs. It was so strange that the sound of the foal's legs seemed to emulated that of multiple foals, not just on-

Thor quickly spotted this particular foal's legs. It has four too many! What kind of being was this?!

"Loki?!"

"Please." Loki's voice broke a little as he spoke. "This is the offspring of Svaðilfari."

"Come now, let us go inside the palace, Loki. The matter with Svaðilfari is over, his master's payment was forfeited."

"No, Thor!" Loki all but screamed. He caught himself quickly and lowered his voice. "No, Thor... this is the offspring of Svaðilfari... and me."

Thor was speechless for a moment. Then two as he stared at Loki is disbelief. He, at first, wondered how this could be possible. He thought about calling his brother a liar, after all, Loki was always one for tricks and mischief. But this all felt too unnatural for Loki. This wasn't a light-hearted jest. Loki honestly looked terrible, not to mention his brother smelled of horse.

"We must tell father immediately."

"No, Thor!" Loki begged. "Please... I just need to sleep, brother." Thor agreed and the two of them walked to the palace with the foal following close behind. Thor used his cape to cover Loki's nudity and he rubbed his brother's shoulders gently to keep him warm. "I promise, Loki, I will make this go away."

.

And by 'go away', of course, Thor meant, 'tell Odin and see what could be done about it'. Odin was upset with Loki. It was shameful to be taken by another male in Asgard. Not shameful to take another man, but to be taken, was shameful. Ergi. Odin had yet another reason to be disappointed in his second son... He questioned Heimdall about why his eyes could not see Loki while he was being sexually assaulted by the horse, Heimdall said,

"My Lord, my eyes see all that is meant to be seen. However, as I turned my gaze upon Loki in mare form with Svaðilfari, he was hidden from me."

Odin was once again, furious and disappointed. There was no proof that Loki was even telling the truth about having been raped by Svaðilfari. For now, Odin had to assume Loki was not telling the truth and that Loki just wanted to bring shame upon the Odinson family. He told Loki that he would take his child, his foal, Sleipnir as his own steed. Odin would have Sleipnir raised in the stables to grow into the finest steed he could raise and he'd ride him as his own.

This upset Loki, for as much as Loki hated Svaðilfari, hated what that horse had done to him, he didn't want Sleipnir to suffer the punishment for it. Loki had studied and loved horses very much and he knew that foals needed to be close to their mothers. Sleipnir had only been born on yesterday, he was still new to this realm, the foal would need his mother there for comfort and guidance. Yet, Odin refused.

"You have brought enough shame to this kingdom, Loki. I refuse to allow you to let it sink further. You will not see Sleipnir, he will grow in the stables along with the other horses."

It was Loki's turn to be furious. He immediately returned to his chambers and wept. Loki had the chance to be a better father than Odin, yet that opportunity was viciously ripped from his decisions as Odin had made it for him. That was only the beginning of when Loki had began to hate Odin.

...

"What of you, brother?" Thor asked.

Loki snapped out of his thoughts and turned his head to face Thor's as they laid on the grass under the shade of Idunn's apple tree. Loki was confused. He didn't remember what Thor had originally asked.

"W-what?"

"What do you want to accomplish before death?" Thor asked again. Loki broke eye contact with Thor and focused his gaze up into the pale blue sky, watching the clouds as they slid across the Asgardian palette of blue. Loki had to think about this... Yet, none of this memory seemed to make any sense. His other memories made sense, he could remember them so clearly in his mind as though they'd just happened yesterday, but this one... this one was different. It didn't sound like Thor. The setting didn't feel quite right.

"I... I just want to be loved." Loki whispered. As he turned his head to look at Thor, he nearly jumped back in surprise to see that the face he was staring at was no longer that of his beloved brother, but actually that of Odin. His... "father". Suddenly, the open field disappeared, the blue sky faded, and Idunn's apple tree dissipated into the air around him only to be replaced by bright, bold, golden furniture and a wide, heavy throne upon which Odin was sitting, glaring down at Loki with his one good eye.

"What do you wish to become, Loki?" Odin asked.

"I..."

"What do you wish to become!" This was a demand that Odin yelled. His scream echoed throughout the throne room. Loki felt scared. Odin had never yelled at him quite like this before.

"I wish..." Loki started, but the words didn't want to leave Loki's mouth. "I wish..."

_TO BE LOVED!_ His mind screamed but the words couldn't come out of his mouth, try as he may. He started to feel dizzy, his mind started to swim and the room became fuzzy, blurry. Nothing was making any sense, he didn't remember feeling this before, didn't remember this memory. Where was this all coming from?! The thoughts teetered in Loki's consciousness as he took a step back and the room around him began to melt and mesh into thick, gooey waves of gold and white. All that remained now was the face of Odin, at first stern and cold... but now, it appeared soft and almost gentle.

"You wish..." Odin began. "To be loved, my son."

And Loki awoke from his reverie.

...

Thor stood where Loki used to be, basking in his brother's absence, the separation only making him long to see his baby brother again. Only, he longed to see Loki well once more. He missed those days when Loki was young, innocent, pleasant to be around. Those days when Loki wasn't living in constant fear of disapproval, wasn't trying to prove himself to anyone. Thor longed for his baby brother to return.

He stared up into the Asgardian sky, looking for a sign that Loki was out there somewhere, much like he did when he believed Loki to be dead after falling from the broken Bifrost. Thor's heartstrings had been tugged and Thor couldn't bear the idea of losing his brother again, this time, for good.

He watched the sky closely, still trying to find something in it's blue and white patterns that pointed to Loki, and not only pointing to Loki being there, but Loki being alive and well. Thor wished for nothing more.

He was surprised when his mother, Frigga came running to his side, staring up at the sky, wide eyed and horrorstruck. Thor could tell, she knew what she had done to Loki while under the influence of Thanos and she felt horrible, just like Thor.

"My son..." She whimpered softly and her fingertips found their way to her mouth as she covered it, trying to hold in her sobs that slowly started to shake her form.

...

The battle raged on in front of Loki's unseeing eyes. It was happening so quickly, yet everything felt as though time itself had slowed down so much. Loki couldn't focus on any one point of light as the two most powerful beings in the universe collided with each other. Fighting over Loki.

Loki backed up further from where he was positioned, to make sure he was out of the heat of the battle. Both Thanos and Odin were formidable fighters. Loki was afraid that he had no guess as to who would win. It was anyone's fight at this point. Though, Loki prayed to the Norns that Odin would win, he also prayed to the Norns that should Odin lose that Thanos would grant him a swift death instead of continuing to torture Loki through mind play and manipulation.

Loki used the last little bit of his quickly draining energy to reach Thor. For he wanted to see his brother one last time, in case this was to be Odin's final battle.

He was able to teach Thor and he could see Thor where he was standing on the balcony of the palace, holding their mother as she sobbed. It broke Loki's heart to see what had become of his family... What he had turned his family into.

A loud, cackle of dark magic spread through the rocky surface of the Sanctuary and Loki was frozen where he sat, his eyes squeezed shut. He was scared. Odin might be dead... who knew? But then, Thanos could be the one who is dead. It was easily anyone's pick. After a few long minutes of nothing but silence, Loki slowly craned his head and peeled open his eyes to see who it was that had bested the other.

Loki's eyes were greeted with the sight of Odin standing over the stiff body of Thanos as it laid in a crater in the rigid ground of The Sanctuary. Loki could tell, Thanos was not dead... a fact that disheartened him, yet, he was glad to see that Od- _his father_ had won this round.

Odin approached Loki quickly and grabbed Loki by the arm, calling out to Heimdall to open the Bifrost, sending the two of them home.

...

Upon arrival, they were greeted by no one except for Heimdall, who did not say anything as Odin dragged Loki across the golden floors of Heimdall's observatory. Odin barked some order to Heimdall about watching carefully for Thanos, mentioning that he'd finish Thanos later should he dare threaten Loki again.

Loki felt unreal. They approached the palace quickly, where Thor and Frigga met them at the gates, both with tears in their eyes and pride in their hearts that Loki, their beloved family member had returned home. Loki didn't feel as excited as he'd hoped. He thought he'd never get the chance to see his mother in her right mind again, thought he'd never see Thor and never allow himself to explain to Thor all that had happened to him in the past, while on Midgard, even some of the things that had happened on Asgard, many centuries ago...

Frigga embraced him and held him tightly to herself for a long time, all the while, whispering her apologies to her son, a part of her sounding as though she knew Loki would not accept an apology... And she was right. Loki could not accept her apology when he, himself, knew that this whole ordeal was his fault.

"Brother!" Thor smiled as he clapped Loki's back. "Words cannot describe my joy to have you return." But Loki did not share in Thor's joy... That wasn't to say he didn't love his brother, or his mother... No, Loki still felt as though he'd left a piece of himself on Midgard. The piece that was still broken and needed to be fixed. Still, Loki remained silent, even as the royal family slipped into the palace unseen by their guards and servants.

They went their separate ways once they had reached the hall that led to the royal chambers. Thor walked with Loki to his chambers, while Odin and Frigga walked to their own. Loki remained silent the entire time.

.

"I must return to Midgard to inform my friends of the joyous news. I will also speak to father about keeping you safe here on Asgard." Thor sounded so proud of himself, almost as though he were the one who had fought Thanos and came out victorious. Loki didn't want to remain on Asgard. This realm was filled with too many memories, too many **bad** memories that Loki felt he wasn't strong enough to live with yet. Yet, he couldn't find a way to explain to his brother how he was feeling...

Loki could only stare blankly at Thor as his brother approached him and gently placed his large hands on Loki's slim shoulders, gripping them tightly and gazing deep into Loki's piercing green eyes.

"I promise, Loki. I will not let any harm befall you again. You will not be ignored or forgotten, I promise, Loki..."

Thor was always full of unkept promises. Loki forced himself to smile, though, he wasn't feeling happy in the slightest. Thor ran his hands down Loki's shoulders and slipped his hands onto Loki's waist. This, however, caused Loki's mind to jump back a few weeks... Back to that time in his room, where Thor had grabbed Loki's waist and began to tear at his shirt.

Loki's eyes went wide and he pushed Thor back with as much strength as he could muster. His breathing began to speed up and he found that his hands were shaking in fear. "Thor..." He whispered. "I'm... I'm sorry." Loki couldn't explain to Thor what was happening and Thor couldn't understand what had happened either. Thor didn't get it. His touches would forever be tainted by horrible memories of assault. Instead of love and affection, Loki would always remember pain and fear. Loki didn't think. How could he? He just turned around and took off running out of his chambers and down the hall.

As he ran blindly, he soon ran into Frigga, who was just leaving her own chambers to come and check on Loki and Thor.

"Loki...?" She was surprised to see him running out of the room so quickly. Loki grabbed Frigga and rubbed his face into her shoulder.

"I cannot stay here..." He whispered to her. "I cannot stay. I was accomplishing so much on Midgard. I met a wonderful healer, who taught me so much, Mother." Loki explained. "I need to return. I understand, I will not be protected on Midgard, but here, I cannot stay. I have so much to complete on Midgard. I wish to return."

It hurt Frigga's heart to hear this, yet, at the same time, she could not have been more proud of her son. Loki seemed to have finally understood that he had a place in the universe. He had a purpose and he understood that there were steps he needed to take to achieve that purpose. Frigga hugged Loki, absent-mindedly running a hand through his thick, dark hair.

"Oh, my son... My precious boy." Frigga murmured. "I want you to better yourself, Loki. I want for nothing more than to see my son well once more. While, I will miss you greatly, I am grateful to this healer you have met, and grateful that you will become whole again." She planted a kiss on the top of his head. "Wherever you are, you will always have protection, Loki. Perhaps, when you are well, you will return to me? I cannot bear to lose you to such darkness again."

Loki nodded. He gave his mother a gentle hug and as he slowly began to use his magic to disappear, he wiped away a stray tear from her cheek that had began to leak from her eye. Frigga gave a weak, sad smile. Yes, she wanted Loki to get well, but she would still miss her child immensely. It was with a heavy heart that she watched Loki go, but she knew this would be for the best.

...

Thor was beyond raging when he'd found that Loki had returned to Midgard... To Detroit. Thor tried to follow Loki to Detroit, but upon arrival at the hospital of which Loki was admitted, Thor was told that Loki was seeing absolutely no visitors. None. He would not even make an exception for Thor.

Thor had no choice but to leave Loki alone. So, what else was there to do? He could visit the Avengers at the Stark Tower in New York, which, was now a headquarters for The Avengers. A meeting place for them, rather. He could use some cheering up and the sight of his friends never failed to put a smile on his face.

He had access to Stark Tower, as apparently, Tony had programmed the Tower to recognize Thor. The improvements done to the building were magnificent. It looked even better than new, the tower was bigger, better and had so many shiny, new features that Thor was certain Stark would explain to him once he'd made it into the building.

Surely enough, the whole team was there, but instead of greeting Thor, they bombarded him with questions about Loki, whether or not Loki was okay, what happened with Loki and Odin, why Thor came back to Midgard, what was going on with Asgard, was Thanos still in the picture, questions similar. Thor answered them all, but not without first telling them that Loki had decided to return to Midgard to finish his recovery.

"He'll be fine, Point Break." Tony smiled. "The Avengers will keep tabs on him while he's there. That son of a bitch, Thanos isn't going to mess with property of the Avengers." Tony was joking, but Thor didn't take it lightly.

"My brother is property of no one."

"He'll be safe here, Thor." Natasha spoke up.

"Besides..." Tony added, "Once Loki is back to his usual funky fresh self, I'm sure he'll be a great force to reckon with."

"I am sure you are right, Stark." Thor smiled. Loki would be alright and as he was sure Loki would want, he would wait for Loki. When Loki was well and ready, his brother would return to him once again.

* * *

Author's Notes:

I'm not dead! And I did NOT forget about this story!

Life has been throwing curve balls at me lately and I had to deal with that before coming back to this story.

I hope this chapter makes sense. The beginning segments are flashbacks/dreams as this is all that Loki is seeing while he was "watching" the fight between Thanos and Odin. Speaking of which, I had to do some research on. I don't read the Thor comics, so I wasn't too sure if Thanos and Odin have ever fought and I wasn't sure who'd canon-ly win in a fight. My research tells me that Odin would win, but Odin would never be able to **kill** Thanos. So that is why I left the battle so vague and left Thanos alive.

This is the last official chapter, but there are still some loose ends I want to tie that I didn't want to do in this chapter because I didn't want this chapter to drag on forever and I wanted it to be a little neater. Please remember, I'm writing these chapters without a beta, so all mistakes are mine if you find any. I always try to catch all of the mistakes by re-reading the chapters a billion times, but there always seems to be one or two mistakes that manage to slip through my sight!

Okay, so I plan to have this story 100% complete and finished in one more "chapter" which will actually just be an epilogue. You'll all hate me for the ending, as I have the end planned out already, I just have to finish writing it. But yeah, you'll all hate me for the way this will end, but at the same time I'm quite excited to make it end that way.

Once again, sorry for taking a long time to get this chapter out.

Thanks for reading!

\- Rawiyah


	16. The End

Summary: AU. After escaping imprisonment on Asgard, Loki returns to earth, only to find himself in a different sort of prison... A psychiatric ward.

* * *

**Chapter 16: The End**

A couple of months have passed, Loki watches from where he is seated at a table in a private room, as Thor is escorted towards Loki by a staff member of the Laurel Hills Residential Treatment Center...

"Surely you've grown tired of seeing my face, Loki..." Thor sighed as he traced a circle onto the table where he and Loki were sitting.

"Actually, the sight of your face is quite welcoming..." Loki admitted. "Even if I see it multiple times a week." Loki was greeted by a small, cheeky smile of Thor's. Loki didn't smile in return, however. Instead he just averted his gaze to stare at the circles Thor was tracing into the table.

"How long will you be here?" Thor asked. Loki shrugged.

"Some residential treatment centers on Midgard hold patients for some months, others up to a year..." Loki stated. "A Midgardian year, of course." He added quickly once he saw the worried look on Thor's face. Thor was so precious. Though, Loki was still very sore from past events. Not only from being a child on Asgard, but being an adult on Midgard as well. Loki didn't even realize quite how broken he was until coming to Midgard for 'recovery'. "But you knew that already, Thor... I told you last week that I may be here for about a year."

"Yes... I believe you did." Thor was absentminded throughout the entire visit. It made Loki feel a little anxious. Thor was never like this during his visits, Thor was always very excited to see Loki and it was as if he hadn't seen Loki in eons when they meet, he is just as excited, if not, more excited to see Loki as each day goes by. This time was different, something was off about Thor that Loki couldn't quite pinpoint.

"Are you well, brother?" Loki asked. Oh, the irony. Loki, the one being trapped... Well, kind of trapped in a Midgardian residential treatment center, was asking Thor, the golden boy of Asgard, if he was alright. If only Odin could see Loki now. Thor's bright, blue eyes lifted from the table finally and stared into Loki's emerald orbs.

"Yes." Thor whispered. "It's just... that I can never get used to seeing you like this."

Loki smiled, but did not say anything in response. Thor's eyes slowly made their way back to the table and Thor began to scratch at the table's laminate finish with his nail.

"Have the others been by to see you?"

"No." Loki brushed a stray hair behind his ear and cast his eyes away from Thor to stare out of the window. "But I do not doubt that they are monitoring me every so often."

"They are concerned for you, as I am." Thor said as he let out a long, sigh through his nostrils. Loki knew better than to think Thor actually believed that. Thor was no longer the naive, young, open-minded boy that he knew as a child. Thor had changed. Though, Thor still tried to convince himself that the world was the same. People were the same. They were not.

"They are only acting out your wishes." Loki spoke softly as his eyes looked at Thor's wandering hands. Thor definitely seemed out of it today.

Loki reached forward and gently placed his hand on top of Thor's, a kind gesture, one that Loki had often done in their youth. It was strange now, being in the same position as they once were, years later now, after all they'd been through. Thor's head tilted upward to look into Loki's eyes and Thor smiled, albeit, a weak and tired smile.

"If I knew you once, Loki, now, it's as if I know you even less..." Thor said. Though, it was more as if Thor were thinking aloud than actually talking to Loki. Loki, however, only gave a small, smile in return.

"How is Od-... Father?" Loki asked. Loki still had to get used to calling Odin father once again. While, Loki still didn't trust Odin, Loki was beginning to accept that his once-father understood now the pain Loki was going through and maybe even wanted to help. Perhaps Frigga talked him into it, or perhaps it was honestly because Odin cared! Either way, Loki was, to say the least, a little relieved to have someone on his side for once.

Loki actually started to tune out Thor's voice a little as he heard Thor mumble some form of, He's worried for you, Loki. Loki felt better, he had to admit. The therapy sessions and the various forms of treatment and rehabilitation going on in this treatment center have been excellent thus far. He felt as though he were making progress. Yet, the thought of Odin still made his skin crawl. He couldn't tell if it was distortions of his mind that made him hate Odin, or if he was actually as bad as Loki thought he was. Regardless, Loki still owed him his life at least three times over now. A debt Loki will never be able to repay.

The two brothers spent an awkwardly long silence just staring in opposite directions, avoiding each other's eye contact. It was fine with the both of them for a moment, until Loki began to grow anxious again.

"Perhaps you should take your leave now, Thor? Surely your friends are waiting for you..."

Thor looked at Loki,

"Yes..." He mumbled. "Perhaps I should go." He rose from the table and turned to leave...

Loki did not stop him.

...

Loki spent his days trying his absolute hardest to recover. He went to all of his groups, he went to his therapy appointments, did his therapy worksheets, built many interesting crafts, drew many interesting pictures, painted intricate designs and patterns. His room was entirely decorated in his paintings and drawings. He never realized it before, but many of his paintings depicted Asgard, depicted him and his "family" as they were happy, bright and golden, while Loki was dark and blue, both emotionally and in appearance.

He stared out of the window, not looking at anything in particular, just hoping to catch a glimpse of Thor flying through the air, maybe, hopefully coming to visit Loki once again. Even though Loki often looked disengaged and bored during Thor's visits, he still enjoyed every moment he could spend with his golden brother.

Thor had not touched Loki, not even on the hand since Asgard all those months ago. Loki was still recovering from his psychosis and the subconscious fear he had of Thor. Any touch, even as simple as a brush against his hand sent Loki into a panic that was difficult to control. Loki couldn't help but feel ashamed. Thor wouldn't want a brother like Loki...

A wolf spider laid on it's web just outside of Loki's window. Loki stared at it and watched as it's legs slowly moved as it clung to the web tightly as the wind blew through it. He didn't feel sorry for the spider. It chose to crouch there in its nest, it had to learn the consequences of such actions.

Loki looked up at the clock in his room, it was almost time for the group again. He sighed as he stood up from where he was seated in the window sill. As much as he felt the therapy was helping, he still hated doing trauma work. He hated talking about the trauma and having to relive it and "revisit" the memories. Every time he had a flashback, it ate away at a little part of him. He was beginning to worry that sooner or later, there would be nothing left of him to eat.

He closed the door behind him and made his way down the hall to the group therapy room, gritting his teeth in anxiety the entire way. He hated the groups. It was bad enough to embarrass himself in front of his own therapist, but to break down each week and have a flashback in front of a group of nosy, Midgardian eyes was starting to get old. Loki, the once majestic, fearless God of Mischief being reduced to a scampering, spastic mess of trauma was not something he was proud to have become. If Odin didn't give up on him yet, he was almost sure Odin would have done so now as he looked down on Loki from his big, golden throne on Asgard.

"Loki." Dr. Ackerman and Dr. Bakshi greeted.

Loki looked around at the other group members. He'd gotten used to them being there, but he never acknowledged them. There was Stephanie, a 19 year old girl who had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, she was here because her parents were rather wealthy and the hospital easily convinced her parents that this was where she needed to be. Really, Stephanie's only issue was her uncontrollable seizures, of which the doctors couldn't find a cause. Then there was Angelo, an older man, a war veteran with PTSD. He was never a barrel of laughs. He was actually quite serious about everything and didn't seem to have much of a concept on jokes. Lastly, there was another woman, Amy, a mother of three, who just seemed really out of touch with everything. She was probably in her late thirties, really early forties with two adult children and one almost adult child. Her husband had died and she'd been so poorly effected by the trauma of losing her husband that she often still calls out for him and she often tells Loki that her husband is coming to pick her up soon... And he never does.

Loki took his seat. This group was going to be pretty small today. There were two other patients, but Loki guessed they were either too tired to come to group today or they had other things they were doing.

The group started off the same. They'd do some cognitive activity to get themselves 'warmed up' for whatever might happen today in therapy. Loki hated it, but he did it anyway. He desperately wanted to get better, he hated living in fear and being haunted by his past. He wanted to be free from it.

After the activity, therapy started.

Loki was slowly drifting off as he realized that Stephanie was talking... He didn't remember the question Dr. Bakshi asked, but he'd assumed that it had something to do with trauma because that was what Stephanie was talking about.

"... I didn't even know what was going on. I mean, one minute we were watching a movie and the next he was all over me and I couldn't stop it." She was explaining something, but Loki wasn't paying much attention, his head was everywhere tonight. Everywhere except here, on this planet, in this building, in this room...

"... I can still feel his hands on me..."

Damn. That set it off. Obviously, it had to happen sooner or later. No matter how hard Loki tried to recover, any little reminder of his past abuse and the incidents with Thor would trigger a flashback that Loki couldn't control. It started with feeling Thor's hands on his waist, tugging at his clothes... Loki's hands moved to the waist line of his pants and he gripped them tightly, trying to protect himself from the vision of Thor that was slowly creeping into his eyesight.

He shut his eyes tightly, wanting to avoid seeing the darkness in Thor's eyes, but even behind his closed lids, he could still see the cold, empty shell of his brother as it began to violently undress Loki. Loki shook his head, trying to shake the vision from his sight, but he couldn't... He tried to tell himself, it was only a flashback, it's not actually happening,_ it's not happening... it's not happening..._

But the flashback won. Loki fell out of his chair to the floor, screaming and kicking at the invisible force that was attacking him. Neither of the therapists stood up to help Loki, they just watched and called out to Loki,

"Loki, it's not happening. You're safe, Loki, you're safe!" They both knew better than to approach Loki while he was like this, it would cause the god to sink further into the flashback and create a more psychotic, fearful spasmodic attack and they could easily be injured. "You're safe, Loki! Listen to us."

Loki's body began to twist and wiggle in strange positions as he tried his best to fight off the flashback, but the harder he fought the more real it became. The doctors noticed this.

"Don't fight it, Loki. Let it finish... Let it finish, Loki."

Loki's body jerked and twisted as he still fought with his might, until, it slowly, slowly went rigid and he stayed on the ground for a little while. Staring up at the ceiling with unseeing eyes. The vision was slowly leaving his sight and he was beginning to return to his body. When Loki came to, he was exhausted. His body fought hard and the adrelinie was pumping. He slowly sat up and avoided eye contact with anyone. He was too ashamed that after months of being here, this was still happening...

"I'm going to go to my room." He mumbled.

Loki left the group therapy room and made his way back to his own room. His head was hung low and he stared at his feet the entire way there.

Once he was in front of the door to his room, he began to cry. He hated himself so, so much for not being further along in his recovery.

"Norns..." He sighed between tears, "... It's as if I'll **never** recover."

...

Thanos watched with a sick sense of pleasure as he saw Loki's struggles on Earth from where he sat in The Sanctuary.

"Father..." Nebula, Thanos' adopted daughter began to speak. Thanos tore his gaze away from Loki and focused on his blue skinned, half robotic daughter. "... Father, the scepter has been located."

Thanos smirked. He'd find Loki again. He'd find him and he'd make Loki suffer, only then would he get what he truly desired: **Death**.

* * *

Author's Notes:

This is the last chapter. I'm thinking of making a sequel to this story, but for now, I wanted to end it this way. This was the way I've wanted it to end since I started writing it, actually. As with trauma, it usually doesn't fix itself right away, (if ever) and once you're effected by trauma like that, you're literally never, ever the same person you once were.

I wrote this story in a weird way, so after a few days of reading over this story again, I may do a sweep of edits to each chapter, depending on what I see that needs to be fixed.

Sorry it took so long for this chapter to be posted! And sorry this chapter is so short, I wanted to make it longer, but I didn't see a point in making it long for the sake of having a long chapter. I have been really busy with work and I also started a new medication. (Yay. Just kidding. NO!) This medication makes me really sleepy and out of it, so if something in this chapter didn't make sense, please tell me and I will try my best to fix it so that it makes more sense! I wrote the bulk of this chapter late at night while I was manic I guess, so it probably sounds really jumbled. But I did my best to edit it and hopefully it makes sense!

This is unbeta'd so any mistakes you find are my own, and please tell me if you find a mistake!

I hope you enjoyed this story. Thanks so much for reading and being patient with my slow updates! I really appreciate all constructive feedback and I am so glad that you've stuck with me for so long! I'll be working on my other fanfic, The Renewal now that this one is done, and once I get a little further along in that one, I'll consider writing a possible sequel to this one.

Anyway, thanks, again!

\- Rawiyah


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